Only Movement
by Black Ankle
Summary: Three species are caught into the fanatical hands of a brilliant scientist. When the depths of human depravity blends with sincere intent for good, where can hope be found? Can two species cooperate long enough to survive?
1. Chapter 1

**Obligatory Author's Note: I don't own, please don't sue. Though I did make up the mottley crew of characters that will be tortu-used in this little farce, the universe setting and creatures are not mine. Also this story is gonna be looooooooong and I have slow buildups to action. I'm sorry, that's just how I write. I like to firmly establish characters before I start putting them through a gambit of bad events.**

Only Movement 

_Razors pain you; rivers are damp;_

_Acids stain you; and drugs cause cramp._

_Guns aren't lawful; nooses give;_

_Gas smells awful; you might as well live._

_Dorothy Parker_

Chapter One

Waking up was a problem. It was always a problem, everyday. While consciousness gnawed hungrily at Lee's mind, she tried to stay in that vague fog between the waking world and dreamland. But reality was insistent. She was going to have to get up and face the day no matter how tired she was. Gray eyes opened widely, alert and ready to survey the room. No guards and no expected guests. The day might not be so bad.

She searched the room with little feeling. Same padded walls, same nondescript door with no latch on her side of course. That would have made things too easy for her. She was surrounded by that awful off white color, even her attire. It was like the clothing was so depressed that they couldn't stay a pure white. The material was scratchy anyway and just added to the overall misery. Also the sleeves were too long. She hated that. She'd been there for months; someone could have at least gotten her size right by now.

She lay in the corner of the room with her back to the door. If she squinted hard enough, she could almost pretend this was a mental institute in some crowded city in the U.S. The padded room helped in that delusion. Almost. If the room wasn't so well designed she could settle comfortably into that lie. There was no visible light source; instead the luminance came from the very walls. The door was programmed to open upon voice recognition, card reader and (as if that wasn't obsessive enough) retinal scan. There was a camera monitoring her somewhere but it was hidden so well that she hadn't been able to find the damn thing yet. And she'd tried for months. If anything, it was a daily exercise. That and walking the seven steps from one wall to the other, back and forth like a caged tiger. Only she had never been vicious and wild, just free.

Behind her the door's locks (and there was always more than one) disengaged in a muffled _snickt_ of steel sliding over steel. Lee didn't have to turn around to know she was no longer alone in her musings. The hair on the back of her neck prickled uncomfortably, a sure sign that someone was standing over her. That was another thing about the room she detested. The floor was padded like the walls but didn't dip and sway like a cushioned surface should. A rampaging elephant could sneak up behind her with the quiet grace of a feline.

"My dear Leah, how are we doing today?"

She winced. It was an automatic response when she heard his voice. And he never called her by her actual name. It was always Leah; her real name was too masculine for her, or so he'd told her. Denying her family given name was just one of the many torments the doctor delighted in. There was something so disturbing in the way he breathed the last syllable of that name, like a sigh.

Not bothering to face him, she stayed facing the corner since it was a hell of a lot more interesting than he was. The corner wasn't certifiably insane. "It's early." For a fact, she didn't know what time it was. There were no clocks or even a window (not that a window was even possible) in the room. But he usually visited her early, before half the compound was awake. It was like he couldn't wait a few hours of sleep to talk to her again which scared her for so many reasons she didn't want to face.

"I've got something marvelous to show you. Come, come you must get up now." His voice practically glowed with an eagerness that she hated more than the room, more than her scratchy clothes. He was always so chipper but never had any real mirth.

Although she would rather have stayed in that corner for the remainder of the day than look at him, she climbed unsteadily to her feet with a grimace. The human body was not designed to squeeze into a triangular corner. Thankfully he was already out of the room and waiting for her; two guards poised and ready to pounce. If she made one offensive move they'd be on her with a swift violence. All three had been through those motions too many times to count. Even though she'd given up a month ago they still anticipated her surliness with an apparent relish. The doctor wasn't the only one who was nuts.

She crossed the room and stood before the men without looking any of them in the eyes. Obedience was easier for her than it had been the first few times. Odd that the three seemed to miss the caged anger in her, which she found stupid since they'd gone to great lengths to drive it out of her. Lost in her thoughts, she almost shrugged. That was another quirk she had developed. Getting lost inside her meandering daydreams was becoming a more frequent occurrence. Often it felt like she was walking through a dense fog.

Lee hadn't even realized they were walking down the hallway past other rooms exactly like hers. All numbered in seemingly random order, her room was D-05. From what she'd gathered the code stood for Detainee number five. Other rooms were numbered T-01 through T-10. What she couldn't figure out was what the T stood for. Either it was Trial, Treatment, Test or Torture. From what she new about the good doctor, she felt it had to be the last choice. There were other letters too, but she didn't exactly care right now. Her eyes kept drifting to the doors numbered D-04, D-03, D-02, and D-01. They were empty now, this she knew with painful clarity.

One of the guards grabbed her shoulder to stop her from walking into the doctor. When had he stopped? With a non-too gentle push she found herself in a restroom. Same old routine again, they would give her ten minutes to take care of her business, brush her teeth and change into a new set of clothing that one of the guards had shoved into her hands when she hadn't been paying attention. She could cry with the sameness of it all if she had the energy too. That was another trait they'd driven out of her. Tears were simply wasted here. Maybe she should try to pick a fight with them just to break the monotony of it all.

Sighing, Lee slipped out of the scratchy pants and shirt. Nude, she contemplated the shower. She could wash-up but she would have to be quick about it. Usually she only got her hair scrubbed quickly, and body rinsed in time to jump out and jam her clothing over her still wet skin before the guards bounded into the room. They'd haul her out of the room naked and full of soap if they felt the need to. The doctor was always so impatient.

The water was lukewarm like always. The soap had no scent whatsoever and felt harsh on her skin, but it was clean. And the systematic routine of showering with clean hand made soap helped remind her that there was a former life out there from all this off white lunacy. There were other people out there waiting for her. Staring at the soap, she didn't know if she liked this thought or not. Hearing a warning knock on the door, she dropped the soap and quickly rinsed her hair. Now was not the time to be lost in thoughts. Sliding into her clean clothing, and finding no socks to protect her bare feet from the harsh concrete floor, she hastily combed her fingers through her dripping hair. The material clung uncomfortably to her wet skin.

Before the completely shatterproof mirror (she would know), she brushed her teeth and tried not to meet her own eyes in the reflection. Easier said than done. Before she could help herself she looked, actually looked hard at her image, something she hadn't done in months. Now she knew why.

The person reflected in the flat surface wasn't her. This was a complete stranger meeting her eyes with a wounded pride. What the hell had happened? From the bruises under her eyes, to the tired face, to the shorn uneven hair that brushed her jaw-this was a vague distortion of her former self. Her hair had once been a platinum blond, luminescent in it's health. Now it had the sheen of dirty gray ice. Sick, she spat out the tasteless toothpaste and rinsed her mouth out. When the guards threw open the door, they found her gulping down water greedily from the sink.

In the hallway the doctor pulled a crisp, white handkerchief and wiped the water from her chin like a father would favor a daughter. Lee wanted to make him eat the square of starched cloth. As if sensing the menace, one of the guards, a tall, dark and utterly serious individual named Maynard, grabbed her shoulder and squeezed meaningfully. As if she didn't know.

Fatherly ministrations aside, the doctor led the group away from the room and further into the compound. At the end of this hallway there was a set of double doors with the same security as her detainment cell. Once the doctor disengaged the locks and they opened with a small swish of air, the guards pushed her through into an identical hallway, which led them to another set of locked doors.

Again Lee's mind had slipped and she was lost in her thoughts. She paid no attention to the bland halls or the bored guards. Even the doctor seemed to be settled into his own fanatical mind. They were nearing the center of the compound, which housed the computers and a few labs. Despite the two guards behind her, she paused momentarily when they passed by the main computer terminal. A memory flashed before her mind making her stumble into the somber guard behind her.

_How are we going to get in there?_

_Who cares? We got this far, I say we set the charges and run like hell._

_We can't do that! What if someone was killed?_

_They're killing people as we speak._

_Someone's coming; we'll get in there later. Go!_

"Leah?" His inquiry jarred her out of the memory with a start. She could still remember Cara and Wyatt's whispered words. Had that really happened five months ago? "Leah!" Lee jerked her eyes away from the door and met the doctor's gaze. He glanced briefly at the door than turned his umber eyes back to her. "Ah. Reliving some fond memories, my dear?"

She felt the dormant anger in her simmer briefly at his taunt. But she didn't let it out, just pushed it down to wherever it usually dwelled. Being angry, no matter how good it felt, would get her nowhere. The people in this place fed off of the negative emotion. With calm indifference, she shrugged and lowered her gaze passively from his face. From her peripheral vision, she caught the doctor's emotion momentarily. He had seemed disappointed. What did he want from her?

The door forgotten for the moment, they strove on past the compound toward the labs. Disquiet was building in Lee. She had been dragged to five similar labs like this one and each time had been a nightmare. What was she doing back here now? What could he possibly believe she would want to see?

The doors here were heavily secured. Two armed guards stood beside each door. If one could get past these two, then they would have to get the door open. To get in the lab one had to do all the other motions to open doors in this place, then enter a numeric code into a small computer in the center of the door. Even if one could figure out the code, it would only be good for that day, as the researchers here changed the pass code every day.

The fear curled in her belly like a serpent, but outwardly she remained calm. There was no point in freaking out. If she turned and ran, the guards would be on her like a pack of dogs. She had first hand experience with their tactics. Better to grit her teeth and follow along blindly with the mad doctor.

Grabbing her hand in his excitement, he tugged her through the doors like an expectant child. While they walked briskly past two, three, four labs, he chattered nonstop. "It is an unbelievable find!" Lee barely listened; she was too busy trying not to slip on the smooth floor as water dripped from her damp hair down her body. She was suddenly cold as she caught some of his words. "This creature, it is an _amazing_ find. Completely violent, went through twelve of our best men before it was subdued." He chuckled, a sound that had Lee's teeth grinding together painfully. He thought so little of his own men! It wasn't surprising; she knew what madness he was fully capable of. But seeing the excitement shine in his eyes, hearing his voice dance with glee; she was reminded all over what kind of man he was.

They stopped abruptly before a lab marked with a simple "danger" sign. This small warning seemed ominous and somehow understated. Lee didn't want to go through that door. The doctor's excitement was palpable now; he squeezed her hand with enough force, her knuckles popped. This time one of the guards, the smaller blonde, disengaged the lock and pulled the door open. Before she could think of escaping, Maynard had a strong hand on her shoulder as the doctor all but ran down the dark hallway.

Why was it so dark? It was like an unused hospital wing, sterile and silent as a tomb. Spaced evenly down the ceiling were three lights that added little brightness to the hall. There was an observation room at the end of the short hall on their right, with a thick wall of unbreakable glass looking into a shadowed room. Here is where the doctor waited for her. The guard had graciously pushed her down the hall to stand in front of the glass, there he held her. She didn't bother looking at her companions; instead she peered uneasily into the room.

It was almost completely black, except for the scant light shining from the hallway. What was so wonderful in this room? Despite herself, she leaned closer to the glass. All she saw was a shadowy darkness, so black it was flowing across the floor from the back wall. Wait…a moving shadow? Lee gasped when something shining like liquid satin crawled across the floor and settled before the window. As she jumped, she felt Maynard let go of her and take a step back as well. Only the doctor stayed put and stared longingly through the window at the malevolent creature.

Although the glass was shatter proof, it wasn't sound proof. They could hear the creatures muffled hissing as it stared at them with no visible eyes. The thin pane of glass didn't seem thick enough to contain such a monster. Lee backed up even further into the guard behind her. The creature watched her movement with a smooth twist of its elongated head.

"They call it a _Xenomorph_. This creature was discovered some years back by an Ellen Ripley. Its remarkable, never have we seen anything like this species. I haven't been able to study the creature closely, as it's far too violent. But very soon I'll find a way to subdue it and then I can learn more." The doctor caressed the glass almost lovingly; the creature reared back and regarded him with open hostility.


	2. Chapter 2

_Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing._

_George Bernard Shaw_

Chapter Two

As he continued on with his grand plans for the monster behind the glass, Lee stopped listening to him. She didn't want to hear his thoughts on what the creature's organs looked like. Or his ranting about the creature's acidic blood, and what uses could be discovered. Unlike him, she didn't see how this _thing _would advance human science.

"You're insane." The soft words filled the hallway. Stiffening, the doctor turned from the window to regard her with incredulity. She continued on, unfazed. "You can't have enough humans to butcher, so you're going to start butchering other species." The guard behind her remained motionless. Perhaps he was afraid to make any hostile moves while the _Xenomorph_ watched their every move. Or maybe he was just waiting for some reaction from the doctor.

"You just don't understand. No matter what I've shown you, what I've done to make you see, you turn a blind eye to my miracles." He had left the window and now implored to Lee. She wanted to lash out at him. Instead she attacked him verbally. Something she hadn't done in some time. While not as satisfying as digging her nails into his eyes, shouting was at least some sort of release from the anger and frustration that had been building for months.

"Miracles? They're not miracles! You're twisting science, completely ignoring any type of human decency. How many people did you kill for your latest cure?" She took a shuddering breath. There was so much more she wanted to say. She wanted him to see his wrongs, but he never would. She wanted to carve his mistakes into his flesh, just so he could realize what he was doing to everyone else. But no matter her efforts, he would never see the wrong in his plans. The good doctor never failed in anything.

The hateful words she wanted to scream were thick and stuck in her throat, making her feel helpless and flustered. The fight drained from Lee, leaving her feeling stretched too thin. It was hopeless. He was hopeless. This whole place was a nightmare where the rules were skewed and humanity had no real value. Sighing, she turned to glance at Maynard only to avoid the almost hurt look on the doctor's face.

During her mini rant, the guard hadn't shifted his eyes from the creature behind the glass. Through the thick sheets of extremely thick, reinforced glass the _Xenomorph_ continued to watch the humans with a somewhat restless manner. Turning to face the _thing_, Lee couldn't help but cringe when it focused its attention on her. The creature was wicked.

Beside her, the doctor finally spoke, hurt evident in his tone. "My dear Leah, I'm beginning to lose faith in you. You've been given a privilege: to watch me as I work, to learn more about the miracles in science. I've been patient, sharing every one of my new experiences with you. Never once have you given me the credit I've sought. Instead you've shown me nothing but malice. Even grieving for those so called friends of yours, when it was clear that they could serve a far better service to mankind by helping me—"

Something in Lee snapped at the mention of her former companions, their faces slipped across her mind, cutting like a knife. Before she was aware of moving, she had struck the doctor across the face with the back of her knuckles. As a red welt blossomed on his right cheek, both seemed to be content to stand there in shock. The only one who didn't stand gape mouthed was Maynard who leapt forward and slammed her face first into the glass partition with her hands behind her back.

She wasn't focusing on the intense pressure the guard exerted on her arms, or the way her teeth stabbed into her cheek and lips staining her mouth with the taste of copper. Instead the ebony menace behind the glass held her full attention. The creature brought one clawed hand to the glass in front of her eye and struck experimentally. She didn't feel the glass move but she flinched anyway. Behind her Maynard and the doctor watched eagerly.

How easily he forgot her trespasses in the presence of the creature. Lee could have laughed, if she still wasn't face to face with the _Xenomorph_. It was now dragging its nails down the glass across her face. This close, she wondered how the damn thing could see her as it looked like it had no eyes.

Maynard pulled her back from the window and turned her to face the doctor, who was just now fingering the small bruise on his cheek absentmindedly. "You're upset, my dear. And there is no reason for you not to be. What with your mother's illness slowly crippling her. I understand your pain."

He had the audacity to reach out and run his fingers down her cheek in a supposed calming gesture. The guard's tight grip on her arms warned her of any further acts of violence. So she merely spoke in tight controlled tone, "Then let me go home to her. You have it in your power to release me."

The smile he favored her made her gut twist painfully and for a moment, she thought she might vomit…if she'd had any food on her stomach. His faux warmth and understanding disappeared and she was left with his calculating cold demeanor. "You're not leaving here Leah. You will pay the price of trespassing onto my domain, as you and your _friend's_ so eagerly acted. Now you'll go back to your room and you will be in a better mood when I come to get you later. Then you and I can eat lunch together, perhaps you'll favor me with a smile then?"

She favored his sneer with a silent snarl of her own and tried to twist out of Maynard's grasp. If she could only get to him, she really would rip his eyes out! Too late, the guards were hauling her out of the corridor and back to her room, with the doctor's chuckles echoing in her ears.

Sitting with her back to the corner, Lee absentmindedly prodded her busted lip and pondered the good doctor's intentions. His wasn't known locally, or worldly, as the "good doctor". Lee just didn't like to give the monster a name. In the childish recesses of her mind, she felt that acknowledging the doc's name would give him more power over her. Ridiculous, really. He already had her in the palm of his steady, slightly pudgy hands. Still, she was quite stubborn.

Around the compound, and planet, he was known as Dr. Phineas Hallquist. And she could not deny his brilliance in the field of medicine. The man had a genius when it came to human potential. His field of interest was genetic diseases.

Lee sat in the corner and thought long and hard over the path her life had traveled. How did she come to this point? She had always been such a precocious, little thing, since her teens. Really, thinking back, if she hadn't been so damn full of herself her place in life she wouldn't be in this place now.

At fourteen, life on an orbiting space station was stifling-even if it was the size of a small planet. The "Twilight" had housed over 900 people with only a handful her age, even smaller amount considered to be her friends. It was she who convinced them to break into the medical center after hours and it was she, not the seven younger children, who were caught.

Although her father was the financier of the orbiting way station, a sort of halfway house for ships on a long haul; that did not land her much leniency with the military officers running the place. She was reprimanded and sent off to a miniscule planet nearby that all but hid behind one of the three moons they orbited around to "develop herself into a responsible adult". On this planet, named Absum, was when she first heard the name Hallquist.

Absum was tiny; a spec in space. But it was habitable, barely, and was attractive in a completely hostile way. The planet boasted little outdoor life, had a low atmosphere and was frigid being in the shadow of the larger planets. There was a blue color that settled over the landscape due to the atmosphere. It also housed a hospice as it's permanent visitor. It was in this convent-esc hospital where Lee would work for her unruliness.

Laying back into the quilted wall, Lee smiled a slight bitter smile. If only they knew how "better" she would become. There firsthand she had gotten to know Hallquist's famous work and more importantly –his failures. The whole complex was designated to take care of his mistakes; the twisted people science had warped beyond repair. If it takes a few broken eggs to make an omelet-Phineas lay waste to the whole hatchery

In the "better" part of the hospital was where the nun's kindly, but firmly, directed Lee's usefulness. There she tended to the men, women and a few children while they lay docile, often comatose, in their small cots. When she noticed the tattooed specimen numbers on their arms or the graph markings on their backs during a sponge bath, she wasn't dumb enough to ask the nurses. Instead she daily went through the mind numbing harshness without complaint.

It was weeks into the punishment that she finally made friends with a handful of other miscreants sent there to work their way back into good standing. As was his nature Wyatt was the first she met. He'd sauntered up to her as she was spoon feeding a patient, and asked in his blunt often harsh way

"_So when are you going to stop ignoring us?"_

_The sudden words had startled her so soundly, that she dropped the spoon onto the bedspread making the patient, a man named (Abel?) flinch, but not wake. "What?" Lee's question grated out roughly as she cleaned the thin broth off the blanket with her sleeve. She didn't even spare the boy a glance beside her. _

"_Even now you're doing it." This time she did look up, and shrank away as the boy leaned closely over her. He was handsome with long dark hair tied neatly in a ponytail and very blue eyes. She honestly wanted to hate him and everyone here, a task she had taken up everyday, but she sort of liked his open features and cocky grin that, she'd soon find out, would never leave his face. Baby blue eyes or not, he was still bugging her and distracting her from her duties, so she shoved him out of her space and sat up straight._

"_I wasn't ignoring you." And she hadn't really. She'd just never taken the time to emerge from her own misery to meet anyone here besides the gentle, not to mention pushy, nuns. Besides, she was supposed to be above them, right? _

"_Well your going to talk to me from now on, and to them. You may not want to think it, but they actually want to know you. That's Cara, Ruthie, and that big guy is Haskel." He gave a half-hearted gesture over his shoulder to a small-unnoticed group. There standing in front of a tall blonde lanky fellow in glasses, was a brunette who waved her hand happily. Beside her stood a diminutive girl who reminded her of a doll, large brown eyes and shy pout hidden behind shining black hair. Before Lee could return the wave, a firm hand gripped her chin and turned her face to the left. _

"_I'm Wyatt."_

Lee jerked awake with a hand on her face searching for his long fingers. She didn't even remember falling asleep and then she dreamed about them…how terribly cruel. Every day she tried to push their thoughts aside. The pain would drive her crazy if she actually acknowledged how much she missed them. Then again, maybe she deserved the pain their memory caused. Someone had to shoulder the blame. It wasn't likely that many people would remember them. In life they hadn't been anyone important.

The compound housed the castoff and leftovers no one wanted to remember. Course, not all of the 'volunteers' in the compound had been forced to be there. Haskel was there for his parents. How he could sit everyday and spoon feed his mother or cleanse his father's scarred body was beyond Lee's understanding. A lesser man would have been broken; at least that's what Wyatt had boasted while ruffling his friend's tawny hair. Haskell had lived in the hospice with his bed-ridden parents for the better part of three years, since he was eleven. Four years in his past, his parents had enrolled in a clinical test conducted non-other by the good doctor. It had been for his education, they'd needed the money and higher learning had never been cheap. By the time he had reached a middle school equivalent his parents were finishing their first and last year of the trial. When he turned eleven they were admitted to a hospital temporarily following 'mild side-effects' due to the doctor's tests. The following year while he was starting his high school equivalency exams, his mother and father were surreptitiously sent to Absum while Haskell had been staying with a relative. It had taken him a few months and all of the money they had earned from the trials to track them down. His education was long forgotten.

Cara and Wyatt had been sent for various petty crimes. Cara's father had personally deposited her on Absum with the advice of 'shape up or never return'. Wyatt's family didn't even notice his absence. Ruthie had followed her father and his extremist beliefs. For the majority of his (and her) life, he had devoted himself to stopping clinical test's on humans.

This was how her world started and ended: with a handful of rejects. And look where it had gotten her, a small compound in the middle of space under the control of a ruthless doctor. So this is how her life ended.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Yes, I know, these are absolutely hateful. XD Ok, last slow chapter before the sh hits the fan, so to speak. I'm sorry if some of ye are not enjoying the slow pace but once the action starts, it's going to be nonstop til the end. **

**Disclaimer: Noooot mine, dun sue.**

_No one is so accursed by fate, no one so utterly desolate, but some heart, though unknown, responds unto his own._

_Longfellow_

Chapter Three

It was some time before Maynard and Pavla returned to fetch her. It could have been minutes or hours and she wouldn't have known. The measuring hollowness in her stomach was a constant. Since her incarceration she'd lost her appetite for life and most especially for food. Most of her meals were with Phineas. He liked to watch her eat and carry on like a gentlemen to her supposed ladyship. Perhaps he was grooming her, perhaps he was getting his kinks in watching her choke down food while ignoring his eyes. Hard to say.

"Come along, peasant. Don't keep him waiting," Pavla crooned as he hauled her to her feet. If she could, she'd destroy him with hate alone but still he persisted like a cockroach. He'd normally found her pain to be his pleasure.

To her mild surprise they didn't take her to the doctor's office for lunch or dinner. Whatever they were on now. They took her along the same path that had led to the creature in the isolated room but shepherded her into the labs this time. She didn't know how many more surprises she could take. Her heart was so heavy in her chest.

There he was waiting for her, the forced center of her attention for so long it was a wonder she hadn't developed Stockholm's syndrome. He stood in a small lab awash with activity from his jittery assistants. She didn't let her eyes settle on what had them so happily distracted. Soon enough Phineas would release this new torment on her.

"Feeling better, my dear Leah? I thought that I would surely give you another chance. As I so often do."

_Yes, you are so good to me,_ she thought bitterly. She opted not to respond to him as was her usual want. It never mattered and sure didn't this time around. He grabbed her hand again, the same one that had struck him earlier and dragged her through the mess of busy work to a table lit harshly by a blinding white light.

There was a dead creature pinned on the table that was so horrifically ugly and alien, Lee reeled back with a small cry, jarred out of her lethargic mindset for the second time in one day. Hallquist wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her to him. The hold wasn't comforting, or a gesture of companionship. It was of ownership. He held her pinned by his right side like she belonged there.

She didn't have the energy to squirm away, she just stood rigidly and stared at the thing on the table trying not to feel his touch or those fingers which were rubbing her hip in a supposedly "soothing" manner. In his mind it probably was a comforting gesture. She wanted to retch from the pressure of his finger tips.

Focusing on the thing in front of her, she clenched her hands and had to listen to Phineas launch into another lecture. It was a type of the sinister oil slick of a creature she'd had the pleasure of meeting earlier. Everyone was stupidly excited about it's reproducing abilities and again, that nasty acidic properties of it's blood. Lee hated it. It was horrifically ugly, lewd and dangerous all at once. The thing was positively depraved in it's nature.

Leaning close enough to brush her ear with his lips, Hallquist whispered as if to a lover, "Wait, and I'll show you what wonders can be pulled out of this specimen."

She shuddered so hard her teeth clacked together before she locked her firmly locked her jaw in place. Never had she wanted to share _anything_ with him but he had always wanted, no-expected something from her. And it was her fault, his fascination with her. She'd brought it upon herself.

Releasing her to the hands of Maynard, Phineas turned his rapt attention from the corpse on the table. "Now for dinner, my dear Leah. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting but you did need a lesson in manners. I thought we had curbed you of that nasty temper, but ah well."

The immediate response was to bristle with indignation at his condescending jibes at her. He was probing for a response but she wouldn't give him anything he could take apart later and savor like fine candy. Sometimes she felt like his fix for the day and she was nothing but junk.

Like a good girl, she followed him out of the labs and back to his office, nestled safely between the two guards. Pavla and Maynard were like yin and yang to balance out Phineas' lunacy. She'd watched them closely for as long as she'd known of Hallquist and while they were not fanatical about his genius as all of the doctors and scientists on his team were, they had more loyalty. She and her friends, in all their years of research, had never been able to find out why it was they stuck so closely to him. She often wondered if they were blood related but no…among the more interesting horror stories making up the good doctor's past, they'd found him to be quite impotent. Wyatt had jokingly pointed out why the man was so dedicated to other fleshier pursuits if he couldn't get his rocks off on a woman.

Now, following behind him and studying Phineas as he so often dissected her, she found that remark distressing for so many understated reasons. They had treated this whole affair like some grand game of chess with the doctor, forgetting it was his very life. While stopping his work had been what they'd all wanted and strove to accomplish for the greater good of human decency and mankind, they hadn't had the passion Phineas had for his work. Which is why they had failed so thoroughly.

Phineas' office was unlike any other parts of the building. Outside his doors everything was sterile, bland, and harsh. His office was like a warm den made so after she'd arrived. The first time they'd marched her and her group of risk takers through the double doors she'd been struck by just how spartan the interior had been. Just four walls, shelves, and a desk. Why he'd made it so homey for her benefit was lost on her.

Despite the deviation into their norm by the afternoon's adventures, their lunch was the same affair punctuated by inane small talk. Lee pushed around the food on her plate and ate enough to keep a small dog alive if that much. Phineas always had a healthy appetite. He stared at her over the desk, brown eyes alive with some inner strength she wished she could choke out.

"I want to involve you with this new venture my dear. Despite your reluctance, I think you are ready to see, to fully understand this time."

"There's nothing to understand. You're a monster, your work is sickening." It was the same thing he'd heard from her before. Not surprising he didn't bat an eye at the insults.

Smiling he continued like he hadn't heard her, "When you've seen what miracles can be pulled out of seemingly nothing at all, you'll feel what I feel. That exhilaration of triumph of purpose." Here his face turned morose as he studied her. "You have been channeling your energy into the wrong field, my dear. I have watched you blossom into a dynamic creature, a driven woman who just stumbled a bit and now here you are ready to be sculpted into something better."

Lee shifted uncomfortably in her cushioned seat. She always felt so _wrong_ when he talked about her in such ways. There was something to his meandering flattery that was predatory and sent alarm bells ringing in her skull. For the rest of the meal she ignored him in light of studying the wood grain on the desk. She had every inch of the broad surface memorized by now but it was better than reading that sharp intent in his hungry eyes.

The next few days followed a undeviating new pattern of torment. Hallquist kept her by him while he worked tirelessly in the laboratories. All dedicated to his lovely new creatures, new toys for him. He reminded her of a effeminate child, dragging around his favorite dolly while exploring new items in the playground.

Most of the experiments he subjected the creatures to, she didn't remember, her mind losing itself in a grey soupy fog of random thoughts. Most couldn't figure out how to proceed with the large serpentine nasty behind the unbreakable glass. Sedation did not work on it, it was extremely hostile and acted on pure aggravated instinct. One of his best on the team had gotten to close and they'd all learned the tail could be used as a weapon as well. Lee had only stared in detached puzzlement at the splash of the man's blood across the walls and floors, trying to see why they were so willing to die for the good doctor.

She was sickened to find more of the nastier, smaller creatures alive and well in separate crates awaiting to be examined. Their sudden movements turned her stomach. They were nothing like she'd ever seen and yet there was _something_ about them that called to mind deep shame for even looking at them. She detested them and wouldn't go near them.

Then, one inauspicious day the little doll woke up for good and remembered how to _fight_.


	4. Chapter 4

_It was only one life. What is one life in the affairs of a state?_

_Benito Mussolini _

Chapter Four

Lee did not want to wake up. She wished the padded walls would fall onto her and suffocate the life out of her rather then go through another day of torment by Phineas' side. His idea of involving her into every step of his new project was choking what little life she had left in her.

By no means did Lee like that vile, dangerous creature that was kept caged under tighter security then she. But watching them toy with it day in and day out was pulling on the small spring of compassion residing inside. Its screams made her blood run cold but also made her ache for its torment. Although it gave as good as it got, the creature was still unable to fend off the determined scientists. It was a rage filled thing, but it's menace and threats could not stop cold, clinical triumph.

They prodded it with electric lances to test its reactions. Jabbed over large needles into it's thick hide which only ruined them in the acidic wash of its blood. One on the team, a dead-eyed man that Lee found as flat as the whitewashed walls around them, clipped off a finger of the creature's to study. It had retaliated by taking an unfortunate assistants lower jaw clean off. The small room had been filled with blood of both kinds that day. By sheer luck they'd stopped the burning viscous fluid from eating through the floors and walls by using a amalgam Lee wasn't familiar with to soak it up and neutralize the corrosive properties.

There was a lot of excitement about the inner mouth with it's steel-like teeth that snapped abruptly out to catch those unwary or too close. Both of which happened on separate occasions. That thing in the small room went through two teams of eager scientists who flocked like lemmings to study it certain that they'd be part of a glorious finding under Hallquist's heading. Lee could find no pity for them whatsoever.

Through it all she stood behind the large pane of glass in the hallway, beside Phineas and they watched the madness and brutality unfold in the room. In the thick sheet of glass, Lee studied his reflection as often as he studied hers and what she saw made something greasy twist inside her gut. His eyes were too feverish and consuming, like he could visually absorb everything he saw and keep it under his own lock and key, his tidy kingdom with his own rules.

Weeks, months passed. She wasn't sure anymore. Time was slippery and out of her control. When she slept, she dreamed and Lee did not want to dream anymore. So she kept herself up singing small childish songs her mother had taught her when she was a little girl. Or she'd pinch her arm, sometimes drag her ragged fingernails down her sides to pull her awake. The pain felt hot and so very good for so wrong a reason. Phineas and his two guard dogs never saw the marks and if they did, she found she wasn't sure what they would do. What could they do? Would he really care? The man inflicted pain to aid life.

Watching him work, watching the depraved and hungry assistants flock on the creature in masse day in and day out felt like it would be the end of her sanity. But the biggest insult to her very existence came too soon for her. They deviated away from the secured hallway where the specimen was kept and toward the labs again. Phineas was bursting with excitement over his newest discovery he practically vibrated. Lee's legs didn't want to work and Maynard had to drag her along behind giving her a disapproving look every step.

They walked into a med bay so reminiscent of Absum's that the breath caught in her lungs and burned with the painful memories. But there was no Haskel, or Cara, or Ruthie. Not Wyatt and his glorious smile tinged with that hard edge she wanted to smooth away with her fingertips. There was only rows of cots, all filled with patients and they looked so _wrong_ that for a moment Lee couldn't figure out why. Then with a horrified cry of disbelief she backed away from the room, intent of fleeing because on their faces were those _things_, those spindly legged horrors that were _violating_ the very room with their existence.

"Wh-what are they _doing_?" Her voice was cracked and rough from weeks of disuse but it still somehow managed to fill up the room and echo back at her. Bile rose in her throat as she noticed a long finger-like appendage on the nearest abomination twitch and tighten it's grip.

"Leah, calm yourself. This is all part of the scientific step toward a perfect, healed whole." As always Phineas' voice was so calm and thoughtful, so right in his convictions.

Trying to squirm out of Maynard's tight grasp, Lee could only stare at him, "No, Phineas, it's not. You can't keep doing this to people! _Look at them!_"

He favored the long row of victims with a slow, genuinely puzzled look that made a sob well up in her throat. _He'll never see, he'll never realize what he's doing. He has no soul, he's so cruel!_

Something on her face, perhaps the open play of emotions on her expressive features made Phineas' mouth twist in a moue of disgust. "They're comatose, Leah. Don't be so absurd, they can't feel anything. Their brains are useless material but their bodies are being used for something far more important to this endeavor."

Grabbing her arm, he led her out of the room and toward another wing of the med bay that had large viewing windows much like the ones for the specimen room, she noted with dismay. Inside were more rows of unconscious patients, free of the monsters but still just as pitiful for their lack of life and vitality. She counted twenty in all, most likely the same amount in the neighboring room they'd just visited. Forty lives that would be extinguished here.

Any retort for him was never fully realized when one of the persons in the room started to thrash and heave themselves off of the bed. Mewling in distress, Lee tried to pull herself out of Phineas' hand and seek the sanctity of the nearby empty corner but he wouldn't let her.

"Watch, Leah. See for me."

So she did watch and the horror bubbled up thick and rancid in her throat like vomit as something tore its way out of the patient's chest, screaming like a newborn disease that it was. A group of nurses and orderlies were there to capture it before it squirmed out of the hollowed, bloody cavity, flicking blood drops like rubies all over the immediate area. Then she could take no more, had to turn away and be sick in the hallway, dry heaving on nothing but sour acid from her stomach.

"Do you see, my dear? Do you understand the sheer capabilities? Tell me I have reached you at long last." The pleading in his tone ate at her like cancer and for once in her miserable existence since stepping foot on this planet, she wasn't tired or lost. She was _livid_. Closing the distance between them, she pushed out all her hate, her anger she'd been holding, all just for him.

"You killed them! You killed them all, you sick fuck! I hate you! _I.hate.you_!" With every word she clawed at him and tried to strike him. Tried to make him bleed. Maynard jerked with surprise at the attack on the good doctor, Pavla just froze and watched with bewilderment. Phineas' glasses were knocked aside as her fingernails cleaved a path over his eye ridge and cheeks, across his nose. She dug and tore at him and made him hurt. Too soon she was bodily lifted and torn away from him by Maynard, with such a wrench of his back that he'd probably be feeling that in the morning for weeks to come.

She writhed like a live wire, trying to worm her way free. In her flailing she managed to land a sharp kick to Pavla's ribs, when he finally mustered the initiative to subdue her, that had him hissing in pain and reaching for her with hooked fingers intent on returning the pain. And oh, he did. She keened in pain, the virulent hatred draining out of her when his fingertips dug into her nerves and created fire through her limbs. She couldn't even fight Maynard's creeping arm that slid under her neck and snuffed the air from her throat, constricting her airway. The last she saw was Phineas' narrowed gaze studying her in such profound disappointment before blackness ate up her vision and the pain finally stopped; unconsciousness took her.

Following her rebellion, they had locked her up and seemingly forgot about her. Which was fine by her as she'd never wanted to be the center of Hallquist's attention anyway. Unfortunately they had stopped feeding her solid foods, substituting a diet of pills, vitamins, and liquids. Just enough of hydrate her and keep her body running, barely. Her thoughts were getting sluggish and dull, but even then she knew her special treatment was over. They were prepping her body for tests. This she knew from Haskell's parents. He had remembered all too well the special diet his mother and father had been on for weeks before their treatment.

Instead of being alarmed she was just tired. It had little to do with the vitamin diet. Mentally she was just exhausted from fighting him. It was a losing battle anyway. There was little chance of her getting out of his compound by herself when all her friends were gone.

Before her eyes the door clicked open, Maynard and Pavla stood waiting for her. There were two other guards behind them. This most certainly didn't bode well for her. Phineas stepped between the four guards and took two steps into her room, taking his place beside the door with a clipboard in hand. "Take the test subject to room S-02 on the fourth level."

Alarm flooded Lee's mind. He'd taken all personalization out of the order. She was no longer "Leah" to him, now she was fair game. And just what did the _S _stand for in S-02?Trying not to panic openly when the guards entered the room, she stood unsteadily and leaned back against the wall. Her legs felt like jelly and the room swam. Before she could put up more of a defense Maynard grabbed her arm and hauled her into Pavla's awaiting arms. She didn't even bother to struggle. She had to conserve her energy for later.

The guards, with her between them like a parody of a vanguard, followed Phineas down the hall to an elevator. The ride down was uncomfortable and silent. Lee snuck sullen glances at the good doctor from time to time, but his stony face gave nothing away. One level down they pushed her out of the elevator and pulled her through a maze of dim hallways. It was chilly this far down under the soil and the air had a slightly damp quality. The upper levels of the compound hadn't been rushed, quite unlike this level.

It was the darkened hallway with three doors that tipped her memory of the creature like spilled ink. The guards halted in front of a set of doors guarding the hallway. There were no other people around. Phineas went through the usual motions to open the doors and onward they went a short distance and stopped between three doors side by side. The code on the doors were: S-01, S-02, and S-03. The paint looked fresh this whole wing had new feel to it. Apparently the compound had been busy while I was in solitude, she thought dryly.

"Put the creature into Specimen Room number two."

So she was a specimen now. Cozy. At the moment she was more scared then angry. If she was specimen number two, what was specimen number one? The black creature came to mind, with needle teeth and pent up rage. And suddenly she did not want to go one step further into that room. When the guards opened the door with a pass card, she back peddled away from the darkened doorway and into either Pavla's or Maynard's chest. She didn't care whose at the moment. As both guards grabbed her arms to push her forward she balked and let her legs buckle becoming deadweight. Terror sank it's fangs into her mind and she felt like whimpering in dread. Whether she wanted to or not, they were going to put her in that room. Half dragging, half carrying her they almost had her through the door when she lost all sense of pride and grabbed hold of Hallquist's arm and beseeched him.

"Phineas, please! Don't do this to me. Let me go-let me go home! I won't tell anyone. _Please_." To her horror, tears streamed down her cheeks and shame flared hotly across her face. Still she continued to beg, "Let me see my momma. Please, please just-"

"Gentlemen, get this thing off of me and into the room." Hallquist didn't even glance in her direction during her pleading.

Lee gasped as all four guards shoved her into the room and slammed the heavy metal door behind her. A paltry light filtered in from the monitor windows on the doors giving her new room some depth. She was in a cage. Before her was a heavy concrete wall, and on both sides were bars separating her from the rooms to the left and right. From bars to bars, the room was roughly twelve feet across and the floors were bare concrete; very cold on her bare feet.

Blackness pooled all around her and she hugged herself against the chill and dread that settled deeply in her empty stomach. _I'll die here, in this dark room or on some little table being filleted open by Phineas. I'll never see my mom or my father again. They would be so ashamed of me…_

Wallowing in self pity was all to easy when one had nothing to look forward to. Lee could not see a way out of this, not without her friends. Not without her family. Not without anyone else's help. She'd proven she was too helpless alone.

As her thoughts mired in a loop of hate, doubt, fear, and loathing for herself, she paced the cell and the bars on her left side. The metal was freezing to the touch and left a nasty feeling on her hands she imagined more than felt. The silence of the three cells were broken only by the soft sound of her footsteps and tick of her fingernails across the bars. Staring into the cell beside her, she looked into the deep pool of shadows and stopped breathing when something seemed…off about the black gloom. Squinting her eyes, she focused on a spot furthest from the bars and light, the corner where a suggestion of movement…of sound…

A large, shining weapon of black edges hurled at her face with enough force to create a small breeze that ruffled her bangs before the impact hit the bars beside her cheek. She screamed and hurled herself away from the bars, clutching her face like she'd been injured even when she remained untouched. Her breath labored harshly as the creature, the very one and the same that had watched her from behind a thick plate of unbreakable glass, unfolded from the corner and pulled its tail back to it.

Keening in terror as it crawled sedately up to the bars, Lee backed away till her back hit the other set across cell. They'd put her in here with that thing! The bars were too flimsy, they'd never keep her safe from it. Its tail alone could pierce her in her sleep, when she was unaware and alone. She sobbed when it reached a spindly thin arm through the bars and reached for her, just testing it's reach. It could not reach even halfway into her portion of the cage, but it was enough to make her curl up in a ball and cry futile tears.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Gah, sorry for the delay in updates. FINALLY some action 83 and now the plot can get moving. Oh and welcome the newest member to the loony bin. **

_When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others, they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that._

_~Gertrude Stein_

Chapter Five

_Hiss._

In the intermittent hours since her incarceration into the caged cell, Lee had found a name for the ebony beast. Because that was all it did. Every move she made earned a disapproving hiss or muted screech.

_Hell, breathing pisses this thing off!_

After her terror had departed, leaving her drained and raw like a lanced infection, she found anger was a constant thrum. Sorrow, hurt, fear. All beat within her heavy heart but in the despair of her loss of everything she found that she didn't have it within her to plead or mourn for herself. She _wanted_ to be angry at them. To hate them. And she would. She'd make sure her last few days left alive would be as miserable for them as it was for her. What more could they take from her as punishment?

The thought of letting the creature get its hands on her, just to spite those idiots above, whispered through her mind. Then Phineas would see the errors of his ways in housing his precious specimens together in one large cage. But no, she was terrified of the creature. She'd readily admit that to herself. The thought of it touching her had her quaking in dread.

Staying on the other side, well away from its reach, she brooded and sat in the corner of her cell. There was nothing to do but wait for chances to get at them. The first day or two were entirely uneventful. They let her out long enough to use the restroom and to eat a measly meal of nutrient rich supplements. Then they weighed her, monitored her vitals and placed her back where she came from like a good lab rat she was.

Then came the first day of tests…in her wildest imaginations she'd never been so frightened of that needle being turned on her. But it hadn't been so bad, just humiliating. They'd injected her with a serious of shots full of who-knew-what (as they certainly weren't going to tell her) and drew her blood. Always drawing her blood like it was precious, liquid rubies. Her arm grew riddled with tracks like a junkie; her skin developed an even worse pallor.

Often her vision swam as she sat in the corner of the cell and waited for nothing in particular. Lightheaded and lethargic, she conserved her energy by not moving around and let her mind do the heavy stuff such as thinking. Endless hours of such; a soupy fog that stayed over her thoughts and brought down her spirit into depths no one's soul should sink to. She often thought of ending it all but had no idea how to do so besides fashioning a noose out of her clothes and handing herself on the bars. In the end, she was too tired, too scared, too asleep inside to try it.

Her fellow cellmate was a trial. It (_he_, her mind insisted) was not to be warmed up to. It hated her as much as it hated the scientists outside the special hell they were stuck in. She found out straight away that if it could get it's hands on her, it would. One ruined shirt and claw marks up her back taught her that. Those wickedly long fingers had a cruel strength.

So very carefully, she'd marked out the length of it's reach on the floor with the blood oozing from her various scrapes, injection sites, and scratches. The group of attendees devoted to her had clucked their tongue at her for getting injured by the creature. She'd wanted to pummel their faces in and beat that noise out of them.

When it wasn't menacing her, the ebony creature curled up in the dark corner and lay idle and for all intents and purposes asleep. Lee _almost_ came to value it's presence there in the dark on the other side of those bars just so she wouldn't be alone in the gloom. Then she was reminded all over again what a monster it truly was and the solitude crashed into her once more.

Such was her life for days? Weeks? The injections, the monitoring, the clinical faces all staring at her, _through_ her. _Hiss_, luckily for it, did not suffer the same fate. It felt like they were waiting on a specific use for the thing. What, she couldn't say. But while in the med labs she over head such talk as to raise faint curiosity in her addled brain. They spoke of harvesting and using the hides for such things. All seem geared toward military purposes and that, Lee knew, was where Phineas got his biggest support.

_Oh why did we try to take on such a large Tarasque on our own?_

The routine was suddenly broken one day. Asleep against the freezing bars, hugging one sad blanket to her, she found herself awake at a amazing amount of din in the hallways. The stone floors and walls bounced the sounds around freely and made her heart leap into her throat after such a long span of sibilant quiet.

Climbing to her feet, she backed away from the bars and stood dead center in the middle of the cell; feet on the blood-stained mark. Like a petrified statue, she watched as soldiers (_military?_) dragged and fought a gigantic, bound being through the doorway and into the unoccupied cell. It…could not possibly be human! But it looked so close to one. The mask covering it's large face glinted dully in the weak light as it growled and shifted, struggling against the bonds tying it's hands behind it's meaty back.

Transfixed, she watched as they wrested the hulk to the floor and fled the cell, a few of the men stumbling and favoring broken or sprained limbs. But those, she cared nothing for. They could not help her and had nothing to do with this predicament she found herself in. What new menace was to be placed before her? Keening in quiet dread, she backed away as it stood up, and up, and even from this distance she knew it _towered_ over her miniscule height.

Over her shoulder she heard _Hiss_ stir but was too stunned to move away from the bars and she was dangerously past the safety mark. But it wasn't interested in her, oh no. As the giant righted itself, as if groggy and abused, the nasty thing behind her hit the bars with enough force to rattle the metal. That got their newest prisoner's attention and from there things just went downhill. They raged at each other…

Clasping her hands over her ears, Lee hit her knees as they roared and shrieked at each other through the bars. There was a veritable gulf of distance between them (with her in the middle) but still they tried futilely to reach each other and rip and rend. Through it all, Lee could only moan in terror and rock on her folded legs trying to separate herself mentally when she couldn't do so physically.

It wasn't enough and she couldn't _take it anymore. _The madness of these things was going to break her eardrums if they continued, or so she thought. "Shut up! SHUT UP! **SHUT UP**!" That last cry tore her throat raw but and echoed gleefully around the three cells but only when she fell sobbing to the floor, did the two stop snarling at each other to study the mess of a female between them. She knew they didn't care for her, one would most certainly rip her to tatters if he could. But at the moment, she didn't care. She just wanted that small peace and quiet before they started again. And of course, that moment did not last long at all. The two monsters raged over her fallen form while she pleaded with nothing for solace.

_Please just take me away from this…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Arugh Edits! XD I'm sorry. Forgot to add two things. One: Thanks to my Beta, Rad who is awesomealicious. And thanks for the reviews, Tain89. **

_If you would have me weep, you must feel grief yourself._

_Horace _

Chapter Six

Bruised eyelids fluttered open to a bland cell and tomb silence. Lee stayed where she was, facedown in the middle of the floor and couldn't, for the life of her, recall how she had come to that position. With a small tremble, she remembered the creatures squaring off between the bars and the noise and anger. Now, there was no evidence such a confrontation had taken place. From her vantage point, she could see into the newest prisoner's cell but all she saw was deep shadows and a small square of light from the cell door. It would be the same for _Hiss' _cell too.

Sucking in a deep breath to force a semblance of calm into her body (certainly not her mind) she slowly sat up to see what newest trials were given for the day. A longing for her mother pulsed through her mind so bitterly sweet that a sob wanted to well in her throat. But she wouldn't let that happen. Not now, not ever.

The quiet of the connected rooms was a heavy, expectant one. _I'm being watched…but by which one?_ It was true that _Hiss_ often watched her and waited, like the sickness he was, to strike without warning at the bars that separated them. She could've sworn it/him liked to watch her jump in fear not that she could tell any emotion from the next one. It always looked angry.

Standing only heightened that feeling of being visually dissected. It made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck and she rubbed at her skin with a grimace. There was really only one thing to do and she really didn't want to. But in the end, she found herself approaching the bars to the once-unoccupied cell and waiting for the hostile reaction…

_It'll attack and I'll cower in fear. Then we'll begin a whole new routine until Phineas kills me with his needles. _

No attack was forthcoming. She stood a scant few inches from the bars and dared fate to do what she was too much of a coward to do: end her life. There was only quiet and disappointment. Growling at herself, at the thing _hiding _in the shadows just out of her reach, she leaned her forehead against the bars and said, "Just do it. You know you want to…just…do something…I can't take this anymore…"

Curling her slim, bloodless fingers around the bars, she clung to the metal and focused on the high pitched whining in her ears. More and more lately did she feel so strange, whether it was from deprivation in the room or the other nasty acts against her. The droning in her ears that was just there at the edge of her senses was almost familiar…Her mother had been into Zen meditation. Lee had always been so impatient to sit still and reach a state of absolute blank in her mind. Always her thoughts were jumping to another thought or fleeting emotion whereas her mother had learned discipline through pain.

So caught up in pursuing that sterile state of mind, she belatedly sensed something in the air had shifted; some feeling was off. The high-pitched whine wasn't the only noise in the cell. A odd clicking that could have been pleasant if it wasn't so…odd. Gray eyes opened to a most unwelcome and puzzling site: a large, mottled brown and olive chest rippling with muscles. The colors weren't human, the structure wasn't human-but then she already knew that. Still didn't stop the gasp from fleeing her throat and mouth with impressive force as she looked up and still up to the towering form directly in front of her.

_Cruel, hard, expressionless. _His mask was as blank as her mind was at the moment watching him, watching her back. Linear lines and a suggestion of cheekbones made of some type of metal. Whatever was covering the eyes gave nothing away in return but dull reflections of light and distorted, shady images. The hard visage curved upward in a slope away from the face and brow, the edges of the mask serrated slightly in a saw pattern. That was all Lee could take in before making a soft noise and backing away from the bars.

Ugly, masculine, and foreign. That was the only thing that could settle in her tired mind. If the physiology was anything like her species, then it had to be a male. But he was just so…different from what she was used to. Even _Hiss_ could be grouped as an animal. But this one didn't move like an animal, certainly didn't regard her as such. But the noises he made, a steady tick-tick-ticking, were not humanoid at all.

Retreating to the back of the cell, against the wall, she curled up on her knees and hid her face from his sight. If he moved to regard her, she wasn't aware of it, curled up in her only defense that she had. Focusing on breathing evenly, she stayed that way, forcing her thoughts away until her usual escorts came to fetch her. It was just another day for them after all.

She actually welcomed leaving the cell in their possession; to be in the hold of cruel but undeniable humans. Even if they treated her as anything but. Diligently she listened to their banter, the team of gossipy scientists all subbing Hallquist. Somewhere along the way they'd forgotten she wasn't just a lab rat, that she ears to listen. That or they didn't care. Phineas would never make that mistake but he had been absent from her treatments and trials for some time.

"That creature, it alone took down more men than the Xenomorph."

"How's that possible? It's only anthropomorphic."

"No, stupid. Have you seen the scans and muscle mass to body fat ratio? It's a thinking tank. Doesn't run on sheer instinct alone like that nasty butter in the pit with this one." Lee ignored the harsh needle jab that followed that statement. She could tell the woman had missed the vein, again.

"Where'd they catch it?"

"Who knows? Doctor Hallquist never questions where they come from, only that they are healthy and suitable for clinical trials."

Blinking against the harsh light, Lee looked up from her lap into the face of the woman who was just her age or a little over. The difference couldn't have been much. She was passively pretty in a mousy way. "You mean the ones who don't have anyone that will miss them."

The two attendees looked at each other and then to her in surprised confusion. She'd never spoken to them before. The man was even younger than the female. These two had to be interns at best. _Makes sense. Young are stupidly cruel and will do anything for a leg up. Including butchering others as long as they can hide behind the promise of moral salvation. _

The woman brushed over her words with busy movements while the man made himself find imagined messes to clean up on the nearby sterile table. They wouldn't speak with her either because of orders or guilt choked their throats. _Fine, _she bitterly thought, _I don't care about any of you anymore. I'm sorry I wanted to save you._

After she settled back into a feigned stupor, did they go back to their normal routine. She wanted to know what they were going to do with _Hiss _and the new one imprisoned with her. Curiosity compelled her to listen and learn. What she learned, which was little, she didn't like. He was another special case like she was.

Some part of her flared to life in the scope of all of this madness. She couldn't just let go anymore. Not when she wasn't the only one to be suffering. She hated _Hiss_ but she didn't want the damn creature to be tortured any more than she would wish that on any other beast. And if they were to follow through with these "threats" to the newest addiction to their jail, not acting was just as bad as helping them abuse their power.

"Suddenly, I'm not so tired anymore…" Staring at her hands, she hadn't even realized she'd spoken aloud until the man turned to her with a suspicious look. Acting on impulse, Lee grabbed a metal tray full of instruments nearby and bashed it into his face as hard as she could. A spray of blood and his yelp was her reward that absolutely _thrilled_ her. Eyes wide with the newfound adrenaline rush and flux of excitement, she slide off of the table they'd set her on and turned to the woman.

She wasn't disappointed. The attendee was rushing her with a hypodermic needle in hand and by the way her body was poised, she had handled unruly patients before. _Not this time._ Lee's body was normally torpid in movement but a renewed, twitchy energy filled her for the moment. She didn't expect to make it out of even this room. But she'd disrupt as much work as she could.

When the lady grabbed for her she let her arm be grabbed and stepped into the woman's space, knocking her off balance with the blood smeared and dented metal tray. One hand wrapped around her wrist in a bruising grip, her other arm pin wheeling with the needle, the woman wasn't ready for the completely animalistic lunge of Lee's teeth for her face.

Part of her balked at the thought of what she was doing, such violence unseen in her. She'd always been aggressive to them in her fighting but she'd never wanted so much to maim and hurt them as she did now. So when her teeth slammed into the woman's cheek bone with painful contact, she didn't pause or shrink away. Teeth sank into flesh drawing a hot torrent of blood over her face and into her nose. Gagging on a mouthful of copper spray, she pushed the squealing girl away from her and ran for the door.

Even before she could reach the sanctity of the hallway, Pavla was on her in a rush. His squat but muscular form swept her right off of her feet and onto the hard tile in a bruising crush. Snarling and growling in pain, Lee scratched his face even as he wrestled for a pressure points. This time she would not let him. Bucking her body from the floor violently, she nearly threw him off, so caught by surprise was he. Never had she displayed this much rage or strength before. Cursing her in two languages, Pavla couldn't get a good enough grip on her and had to cuff her on the mouth, making dark stars explode across her vision.

Hands were on her, pulling her onto her feet with such force her shirt ripped at the collar. The minute her heels brushed the ground, she was dizzily fighting again; fist swinging around to sock Pavla's ear. He hissed as her knuckle smashed into the cartilage and threw her to Maynard just as he walked through the door.

Off balance and still reeling from the punch to her face, Lee lost her balance and almost hit her knees before the dark-haired guard. He grabbed her roughly by the back of her hair and dragged her down the hallway kicking and screaming in fury. Agony raced from her roots along her scalp and down into her neck and she clung to his arm and tried to keep up with her flailing legs.

"Back into your pit, you stupid bitch." Maynard's tone never betrayed any excitement. He was always so calm and half-asleep sounding even after she'd maimed and disrupted the day. Phineas would surely hold that against them, but his henchman sounded mildly vexed at best.

Pavla trailed along after them, kicking her feet out from under her every time she gained her feet. "Oh no, _peasant_. On your back like a animal." Together the two guards hauled her to her cell, clearing the checkpoints and doors along the way without missing a step. Her fury hadn't abated in the wave of pain and abuse. When they stopped in front of her cell to toss her in, she kicked out at Pavla's knee and bit Maynard's hand. Both cried out in unison and she was dropped unceremoniously to the hard cement floor.

Lunging for her hands and knees even as the fair-haired guard moved in on her again, she screamed at them, voice raw, "Don't touch me! Get off of me!" She didn't expect them to listen to her but it made her feel so much more empowered now that they had to listen to her, had to hear her and see her. She was very much alive for them.

Four hands pinned her struggling down and before she could try to free herself, Maynard had hauled her to her feet before the open door. Handsome face devoid of anything, he backhanded her into the room where she fell on her back with a wheeze of lost breath. The slap hadn't been aimed to injure her to badly, just insult and humiliate. And by the burning of her cheeks, it had worked very nicely.

Rolling onto her side, she ignored the door as they slammed it shut on her and found herself staring at the newest prisoner who was crouched on the other side of the bars clicking at her in what could be a inquisitive manner. Spitting the woman's and now Maynard's blood out of her mouth, she rubbed at face with a long sleeve and rasped to the…guy, "Sure made them think twice…" But she knew it wasn't over yet. It would only get worse and she had no way of knowing how it would end.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: This chapter drove me insane and I accidentally left some typos because I uploaded the wrong copy. I is smart. 8B**

_Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact-it is silence which isolates._

_Thomas Mann _

Chapter Seven

He was fascinating to watch in a way that anything taboo could be. Especially efficient in his movements; the creature drew her attention in the empty cages like _Hiss _could not. If what she heard about him was true, this one could be deadlier than _Hiss_ given the right opportunities.

Not that _Hiss_ was any less of a threat. With the addition to their prison, the black bogeyman had grown increasingly restless, knowing a great threat was nearby. Watching them both like a tennis match, Lee had a feeling these two knew true equals in combat when they saw them.

_What does that leave me as?_ But she knew the answer: Nothing. She meant not a thing to _Hiss_ but an easy target or toy if she grew lax in her guard. As for the newest one, she wasn't sure if her presence was noticed even half of the time. He prowled around his cell like a caged nightmare; stride even though under her watchful eyes, she noticed he favored his left side. If he was injured he barely showed it. But he wasn't always calm. Oh no, he had a horrible temper at unpredictable moments.

After she'd been chucked back into her cell and left with the bare necessities for days for her unruly behavior, she had nothing better to do but watch him as he explored the cell and probed for weaknesses. Then one day he fiddled with his armor and equipment attached with means she didn't understand. Snarling hatefully, the sound guttural and thick even through the mask, he tore off the gauntlet and hurled it at the surveillance camera hidden behind small bars on the wall. The force was so great, it cracked the machine through the dented bars and sent pieces of plastic everywhere.

Stunned by the force of his offhanded throw, Lee just watched with a small moue of surprise on her lips until a riot of guards stormed his cell. If they intended to replace the camera, they had another thing coming. The second the door opened the creature let out a excited roar and jumped _into_ the fray of armed men bringing chaos to their ordered team. Hugging herself and watching from her side, Lee found herself rooting for him because no matter his mass and talent for violence, he was still the underdog in the wave of the armed men.

It just wasn't fair and Lee drew short of breath listening to their mingled cries of pain and struggle. _I want to do something! I'm tired of waiting for them to kill us._ And so, she did.

Much like _Hiss_, she sidled up to the bars and waited until a soldier stumbled too close. When his back brushed the bars, it was so easy to reach through and grab the man's head; fingernails digging into his cheeks. Squalling in pain, the soldier dropped the stun gun he had been aiming at the beast and wrenched Lee to the bars by grabbing her arms. Her skull met the metal with a hard clang and made her rue that rash decision with an explosion of pain in her temple.

Twisting her suddenly lax arms, the guard ducked under her hold and turned around, twisting her left hand at a torturous angle. Tendons strained, her joint popped painfully, and Lee screamed but he wouldn't let up, even when her knees buckled and she fell. She couldn't reach his hand through the bars to bite him and the agony brought tears to her eyes.

Before he could snap her wrist like a dried twig, he was wrenched off of her by sheer accident. The struggle had thrown the remaining guards and the creature onto the man holding onto her. He was pushed away and her face was jerked into the bars again, busting her nose. The rest of the fight was lost to her as she curled up on her side, grasping her face trying to stop the viscous liquid oozing down her face.

The roaring in her head died down to a growling pant…which wasn't in her head. Confused by the noise, Lee brought her hands away from her face and peered into the cell next to her. The soldiers had abandoned the creature for now. He stood beside the bars, panting from the exertion. Eyes trailing down sinewy muscles, she found herself staring at a set of dew claws on his, admittedly, impressive looking feet. He didn't have toenails; those were talons of a predator.

"I'm Lee." The words were out of her mouth before she realized what she was doing. Why would he care? Would he even understand? Hell, they didn't have a language easily comparable to English. At least, not that she could see. He wasn't a dumb creature but he wasn't human at all. She couldn't expect him to think like one.

Clicking inquisitively, she hoped, he studied her from his full height. From her vantage point on the ground he absolutely towered like a mountain over a lake. She felt like he was scrutinizing her and wasn't sure if that was a good thing. Certainly she was found lacking in his hidden eyes. Figuring it couldn't hurt, she pointed to her chest and said her name again. The bleeding had stopped by now but she was still a mess and hurt. With a disdainful snort he turned away from her and stalked to the darkest corner in the cell.

Expected and not at all hurt by his reaction she rolled onto her other side and sought after sleep. She didn't want his understanding. Not really. He was a nasty, large creature almost like _Hiss_ and had nothing to do with her. They simply shared the same unfortunate cell. Phineas didn't have a personal grudge against him. Didn't take out his endless frustration on the both of those two aliens. She was the one truly suffering! In fact, she hated them both! She hated everyone and everything!

So why, if she hated him so much, did her mind already give him a name? _Brun…_she repeated to herself, thinking of those curious and fearsome claws. He was ugly and violent and didn't care for her, but out of everyone here, he was the closest to neutral as she got. Ignoring these thoughts, the pull of sleep was too hard to resist and she fell into turbulent dreams filled with loved one's kept at bay by bars…

~*~

…_Wyatt…_

She awoke reaching for his hand and the one she found wasn't the one she wanted. _Brun's_ taloned fingers dwarfed her delicate hand. Her breath caught in a staccato of terror as he tightened the grip ever so much and turned both their hands palm up to inspect the trapped appendage with a throaty exhale. When one dark nail traced the lifeline on her palm roughly, she jerked away with a tired cry, flailing away from him and his difference.

He let her hand go easily and in her fear, she kept her stare on him, crab walking away from the bars. _Get away-getaway-away._ Her breath boiled up into a scream when his hand shot out and latched onto her foot.

"No!"

Ignoring her cries, he jerked her back towards the bars like she weighed nothing. Which, under the treatment's conditions-was close. Her hands buckled under her and her back hit the floor as she slide back to him with a small whimper.

It was then that she saw the black claws fishing for her hair behind her. Hiss had sidled up to the bars and was reaching for her with that damnably long reach. If _Brun_ hadn't of stopped her…

_A life for a life…that's what he's doing. I got the guard off of him…he's returning the favor? _She stopped struggling and let him pull her to the bars though she still feared him and his hands on her. His grip was stronger than any human and his skin was dry but warm. In the cold cell, it could almost feel nice if the hold wasn't so hard and brutish.

"Why did you help me?" She didn't think he'd answer and wasn't surprised when he eventually let her go and set back to ignoring her. Insufferable bastard didn't have much of a personality. He was always cranky!

Grumbling to herself, Lee sat up and climbed to her feet. She had no idea what she was going to do, but it was better than laying on the floor and pondering the galaxies two largest sources of anger. Between _Brun_ and _Hiss_, Lee had enough malice to fill several lifetimes.

Speaking of, the nasty black thing was leering at her from the bars. He'd gotten so close to her without her realizing it and that irked her more than she wanted to let on. "I wish you'd just drop dead…" Surprise…he hissed in answer. Smirking she stepped closer, feeling a bit more dander in her from the very minor victory over Phineas' men, even though her face still throbbed and she felt her usual level of miserable. That grin was startled off of her when the inner mouth of _Hiss_ suddenly snapped at her, startling her into stumbling back against the bars. She'd forgotten all about that particular skill of his.

A peculiar noise behind her made her warily peek over her shoulder. In his darkened corner, _Brun_ was making a noise horribly similar to…chuckling. He was _laughing_ at her! Which meant that he was as sentient as she. He could feel mirth, malicious of course, and that one note of almost-human feeling suddenly changed how Lee looked at him. It made him into his own being and not just a monster.

_Stop shaping yourself into…somebody…_Any more hidden insights into him were put to a halt as the door to her cell was flung open and Pavla and Maynard stormed in. All the former bravado she'd felt melted away before them. She was tired, cold and in pain. She didn't want to fight them. She just wanted to enjoy one moment of nicety, one moment of peace.

Backing away to the corner of her cell, she growled a warning because words would not stop them and not saying anything felt wrong. It didn't stop them from grabbing her arms and forcibly pulling her away from the bars, no matter how hard she kicked and screamed. And she did fight like an animal; biting and clawing at their arms and hands. Like everything here, they were so much stronger than her and she _ached_ and didn't know how to win.

The three scuffled in the cell until a massive roar split through the air and called a sudden halt to their struggle. _Brun_ was posturing himself on the sides of his bars, looking, of all things, to fight them. Certainly not on her behalf, she felt. A strange realization was starting to form in her mind…that this one was all for violence but on a set level. _A fair fight…Fair fight! That's why he's protesting. It's two on one and I'm already injured…that's just insane. Can't be…it's just the head trauma. _

Nevertheless, the two guards looked at each other in that damnable silent understanding and, to her surprise, released her. There was something going on here that she didn't like. Lee felt like they'd just passed a test both she and _Brun_ would not be pleased to be a part of if they just knew…

"You're lucky this time, pet." Pavla crooned to her, reaching for a cheek. "That little stunt in the medbay would have earned you a death sentence in the way of advanced treatment, but you just keep catching Mister Hallquist's eyes, don't you? Thank these two beasts for that, or I'd be chucking your wasted frame into the incinerator."

For that flippant retort, she snapped at him and only earned a hard slap that sent her to the ground at his feet. The cold floor was starting to feel inviting on her abused face…As their footsteps faded, a broken piece of plastic caught her addled attention on the floor. A piece of the camera about the length of her hand. Numbly she reached for it and cradled the cool plastic to her chest. This was her way out…


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry for the delay, vacation got in the way. XD .......oh, that rhymed. DX**

_Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice._

_~Arnold Toynbee_

Chapter Eight

_I have a piece of plastic, a empty cage, and the clothes on my body. _Her escape plan was starting out with pathetic means. First she couldn't figure out where to hide the broken shard of plastic. On her body would only work until the next time they got their hands on her, then she'd have some explaining owed for that one if they didn't beat her first.

Sullenly, she rubbed her cheek where Pavla had slapped her. He was getting far to comfortable with doing that. His counter, Maynard, never hit her. He slammed her into walls, twisted her limbs, but she didn't think he delighted in causing pain. Not that he particularly cared about her. He was just stone cold while Pavla was sadistically inclined.

So…hiding the stupid, potentially life-saving piece of plastic was proving to be difficult. Couldn't leave it lying around and she had to find someplace to hide it quickly as she was being watched. How the guards missed the small scrap of plastic was anyone's guess. She was under the camera's watchful eye and they _were_ watching her always. So either they had let her keep it or someone had missed the few seconds it took to slide the plastic into her hand and folds of her shirt.

_Well if they come to get it, I'll worry about it then. _Turning her back to the camera and door, she surveyed her cell in the same weary slumped posture she had adopted since being incarcerated under Hallquist's care. It was just dark enough to hide the shrapnel in the corners but then she had to worry about _Hiss _or _Brun_ getting to it. Or worse, _Hiss_ getting to her. She had no idea what the other, large humanoid was feeling about her at the moment.

She snuck a glance over at his cell but didn't see him in the gloom. Back to his corner he sulked and waited for the next fight. How little she knew about him. It occurred to her now that she hadn't seen him eat the entire time he'd been shoved into the room. So either he had something on him that sustained him or Hallquist was starving him on purpose. Perhaps to make him weaker…

_Hiss_ was tossed a variety of meat that it consumed messily like a glutton. It was horrendously fascinating and revolting to watch him scarf down mouthfuls of bloodied cattle. Of course, Lee was growing so used to his grim display, that anymore she just coveted a steak when she watched him feed.

Real food would feel so wonderful in her shrunken tummy. The nutrients they injected into her kept her body alive but gave no sense of filling. _If I get out of this alive, I'm eating until I puke._ There, goal firmly in place, she set about trying to complete it.

Sitting with her back to the camera, closely facing the back wall, Lee took up the semblance of just mindlessly staring off into space like she often did. It was all for the camera's benefit. But in her lap, her hands were moving torturously slow. Unwinding the shard of plastic from her shirt, she ran delicate fingers over the object and looked for the start of a point…

_There…right there…_ Where it had snapped free, it was jagged and shaped like a blade in the crudest of terms. But it was a start and it could be crafted. She brought her hand up to her mouth, faking a yawn for her audience, and drooled into the cup of her hand. Oddly enough, this reminded her of how thirsty she was and what she'd give for her daily ration of water they'd taken away as punishment for now.

Dipping the plastic into the saliva, she brought the debris down to the floor and felt around with her fingertips until she found a viable section on the rough mineral. Very slowly and with focused care, she started to hone the edge of the plastic by scraping it across the mineral like it was a whetting stone. The sound the two vastly different pieces of materials made was almost reassuring in it's roughened whisper.

She kept the moves measured and slow, baring down hard enough that her arm tensed with fatigue. Slowly she started to sculpt one side of the plastic into a blade. It would take some time and considerable effort, as she had to go slow lest she key in the watching faces behind the camera's lens with her suspicious movements. But she was patient and had all the time they'd given her.

Ironically, it was Ruthie who had shown her how to make a shiv. How the darling girl had come across such a skill had always puzzled her. _Never did get to question her about her past all that much. Probably learned it from her father…_ While she whittled away at the edge and honed it into a weapon, her thoughts drifted from her friends to their parents. Where were they and what did they think of their children's disappearance? Her own mother would be driving herself insane with worry. Lee wasn't so sure what her father would be feeling. Their last exchange hadn't been ideal.

_Mom…dad…If I see you again, I'll say I'm sorry. I never meant to make you worry. I never wanted this to happen. I'll even find Ruthie's dad and apologize. And Cara's, even if her father couldn't care less. _

While she worked sedately she was struck with a notion, like a bolt of lightning up the spine, that she felt better. Physically she was at her worst, but mentally, there was almost a jovial glow to her thoughts. She was starting to believe she could get out from behind these bars; out of these ugly walls. Even if it was a stupid dream that wouldn't come true, the important part was dreaming and trying for it.

She wanted to hum while she worked. Not that she did. That would just be ridiculous in here of all places. Plus she hadn't used her voice in so long, except to abuse it by screaming, that the sound would have been ugly. Instead, she listened to the soft susurration of the burgeoning blade and focused on her goal. Like a mockery of honing a samurai blade, she cleansed her thoughts and mind as she bent the plastic to her will and made her weapon into an embodiment of empty hope.

How long she sat and honed the blade, she had no way of knowing. A sudden sharp _click_ next to her made her start out of her stupor with a jerk. _Brun_ was crouched on the other side of the bars and could have very well been there the entire time she'd blanked out. He seemed more interested in her work than in her. Unfocused eyes blinked dully at him as her thoughts tried to get out of their torpid stupor.

"…It's a start…" Sheepish words that sounded frail in the cold cells. But she meant them. It was a start. Better than anything she'd had so far. Dully, she studied the fierce masked face so close to her. The metal was marked with small nicks and minute cuts as if very old and very much used. _I'll bet that is really heavy…_She wanted to reach out and touch it, but feared putting her hand near him.

_Brun_ really was quite fascinating. By looking at him, she could tell tiny things that only hinted to what lay under that face covering. The flow of the cheek lines burnished into the smooth metal, the high ridges on his brow. This close, she could discern such small things that one wouldn't notice if he weren't so sedate…like the soft throat that twitched when he made a small trill at her, as if asking, "Just what are you looking at?" All hard metal, wire mesh, and muscle…but for that section under his jaw…

The odd, inappropriate question of whether he was ticklish popped into her brain and she almost swallowed her tongue at the ridiculous image of him giggling. _Now that is just wrong…I've been in this cell too long, I'm finally going crackers. _Then that led to the question of whether _Hiss_ was ticklish and who would be stupid enough to try…_Maybe his mother…_And as the way trains of thought followed their own tracks, she was led to thoughts of her own mother and how much she missed her. They hadn't parted with sweet words but bitter accusations.

She mouthed the words aloud, the last things they'd said to each other. _"You can't let yourself be happy, can you?" _Oh, that had hurt. Coming from her mother's mouth. They'd taken turns accusing each other of selfishness. Lee couldn't forgive her mother for taking the cure Phineas had made. Not after she'd seen _Absum. _Her mother was desperate to live and didn't want to hear about the atrocities the medicines were derived through.

Lee didn't want her mother to die…but she was horrified and felt betrayed when her own parents hadn't supported her in her quest to bring the madman and his empire down. They'd tried everything in their power to stop her…_Guess I know why, now. You wanted to protect me, mom and dad. And I was too stupid to listen to reason. I wish I had you here now, even if it was just to tell me "I told you so." _

A warm, dry hand on her wrist pulled her out of her wishful memories. The soupy fog of her thoughts slowly focused on the strange texture of the flesh against her own…not human. Slowly her eyes focused on the much larger, hand with it's dark talons resting lightly against her skin. Her pulse skyrocketed into her throat and she just couldn't move. Too afraid of what _Brun_ was going to do next.

Tense as a coiled spring, she wasn't ready for the brutal wrench on her hand and shrieked at the abrupt pull. It was only as the doors behind her opened and her cell invaded by the two henchmen, did she realize the weapon she'd been honing for hours was gone from her grasp. _Brun_ had effectively confiscated the weapon from her before she could do anything, including defend herself.

Fear bloomed hollowly in her breast at the sudden loss of hope and she cried out as their hands reached for her, "No! _Please!_" But her cries, as usual, were ignored by Pavla and Maynard. It was _Brun_ she kept her eyes on as they dragged her away. Silent betrayal written on her face. As usual he betrayed no emotion and was unmoved by her gaze. She fancied she saw her own face reflected on his mask and that image stayed with her even as they dragged her off to a level of hell she'd never imagined.


	9. Chapter 9

_Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement._

_~Alfred Adler_

Chapter Nine

Strangled screams and disoriented fight brought Lee to consciousness much later while she was being carried back into the collective cells. Whatever they had drugged her with made her movements slow, like she was suspended in sap. Not unkindly, hands gripped her around her shoulders and under her knees; her head lolling weakly against a strong shoulder. "…_Wyatt…_" But when she looked up, all she saw was Maynard.

Thoughts clouded and stupid; she wondered at how handsome he could be while being so, so cruel and cold. Watching the perplexed flicker of emotion across his brow, she realized she had voiced her confused thoughts in a thick whisper. But…she no longer felt bitter disappointment when she couldn't find her friends. They would never be found.

He had an accompanying guard open the door to her cell and placed her on the ground directly in the center of the room. Unlike Pavla, who would have thrown her in there. Maynard took care enough not to jostle her any further than necessary before he left her alone. She curled up on her side, wincing away from the freezing floor that hurt. In fact, everything inside hurt. Her muscles screamed in agony from the straining and fighting she could barely remember putting the effort for.

Nonsensically, she began crawling for her corner. The one she'd been sitting in before the guards had taken her away. From her vantage point on the floor she could see the mark where she'd been honing the shrapnel into a blade: flecks of black plastic and discolored, roughened cement. The needle tracks on her outstretched arm pulled a whimper from cracked, dry lips. _What did they do to me? What did they put in me?? _Panic tightened her chest like iron bands around her lungs.

_I can't do this anymore. No more…he means to kill me. Whatever his next trial of injections will be the end. I know it! _She felt sick and weaker than ever before. Grabbing the bars creating the corner to her cell, she dragged herself forward in the process pulling her loose pants over a bony hip protruding from her skin. Once she'd been healthy and curvy. That same hip had been rounded with firm flesh and muscle. Skin Wyatt had traced with tender hands when he'd grabbed her up and spun her around.

_I'm going to get out of here, _she vehemently promised herself. _Whether on two feet or in a body bag. Either way, it'll be on my own terms. I won't let him kill me! _Teeth grinding in ire at her lot in life, she barely started when a large hand grabbed her wrist.

_Brun,_ of course. He was crouched beside the bars watching her with that same curious expression. If she listened hard enough, she could detect a faint clicking noise from under the mask that she was sure he was making. _What…kind of tongue or voice box would you need to make that sound? _The urge to bite his hand as hard as she could flickered across her addled mind. That would show him for betraying her. Before she could lever up the energy for that swift attack, he let go of her and flung something into her face. The blunt end of the shiv hit her cheek hard enough to sting.

"You jerk…" But when she looked at the pseudo weapon…she found that the hunk of plastic she'd been working all day to shape was already formed into a curved, sleek blade. Enough time and effort and she wouldn't have been able to form that broken shard into such a beautiful knife.

"You did this?" Pushing herself up on her hands and knees she couldn't take her eyes off of him. "You took it…to help me?"

He answered with a dry snort, as if to say _"Well you were doing so poorly, I had to take over." _

Imagined words or not, she still answered that response with a defensive whisper, "I was doing the best I could…I've never done this before. Gimme a break." She doubted he would understand a damn word she said, but was taken back when he _growled_ at her and crossed his arms in a pose that was too universal to mistake.

"Oh god…you _do_ understand me!" Which…was positively _terrifying. _How did he know her language? That would mean her species had contact with his before but she'd never heard of it. Course, space was deep and human colonies were flung all over in exploration. He could have ran across a few mining colonies. And by looking at him, she had a feeling that encounter did not end well for the humans.

Crawling forward, she kept the knife in her shadow and out of line of sight of the camera until she could figure out what her plan was. _It hasn't changed. I now have a weapon, the clothes on my back, and know of one tiny flaw in Phineas' security. And if I do this…then it will be no going back. It's do or die. Do and die…_

There was a delay in the alarms on the doors. Haskel was the one who found it, weaseling through their own computers like the hacker that he was. Once the alarm was tripped, there was a window of not quite two minutes of weakness. He'd explained in great detail the why and when, but basically it all boiled down to a 'trip' in the signals that made the system vulnerable to interference. There was no numeric code one had to punch in the keypad or a certain trick to it. She just had to make sure to over load the signals in that small window of time. Even then the locks would only give for a second or two. Wyatt had insisted that everyone learn how to exploit that weakness, just in case.

Just in case, indeed. She would have to hope they hadn't noticed the breech in their security in the months since her incarceration… It was a desperate attempt, but it was all she had. And she was so tired of fighting them. _Do I have enough left in me to try and get out?…Guess there's nothing for it but to try…_

Gritting her teeth, she sat up straight and stretched her spine. The popping vertebrae felt wonderful even if that last one hurt a little bit. _Brun_ trilled at her noise making but she ignored him for now. She had to focus on what she was doing for when she put this pathetic plan into action, she would have no time to stop and think. Just go forward.

Mechanically Lee pulled her shirt off of her, hissing at the cold on her bare skin. The answering noise _Hiss_ was named after that came from his cell caused her to roll her eyes in brief annoyance. _I haven't forgotten about you, you hateful thing._ She shivered but didn't bother covering up her chest, even when her breasts were bared for all to see. Before, nudity hadn't bothered her and there certainly wasn't a point to be modest now. They'd all seen her in the buff before, all except the two sharing these cages with her. And _Hiss _was less interested in her aesthetic qualities than anyone. But _Brun…_

Not quite meaning to, she glanced over at him wondering what his reaction would be. If anything, he just looked bored. From what she could see, he was bare chested underneath the armor bits and the mesh. Seeing as how they weren't the same species, she had a feeling their morals weren't even on the same level.

_For all I know, the females of his kind run around naked as the day they were born and have six breasts…or wait…he's vaguely reptile-like…what if they have no breasts? What if they're all one sex and just morph into the opposite when they need to-…Why am I thinking about this?_

Her mental stalling couldn't go on for long. Valuable time was wasting the minute she had taken off her shirt. It was a deviation of behavior someone watching would notice. Nodding to herself, she climbed to her feet and walked to the camera. It was mounted well above the door and it took a few attempts, but her shirt finally caught on the bars and covered the view. Now time sped up and her chances of being stopped doubled. They would be here any moment to clear the camera and see what she was up to.

Breathing deeply to keep herself calm, she returned to her corner and sat. No time to fret or worry. Steadily, she pulled the blade from the waistband of her pants. Her hands shook as she pulled the sharpened plastic across her wrist. A thought that no blood would come forth from the wound crossed her mind. They did draw an awful lot of her plasma these days… That idiotic notion was dismissed when a line of vermillion welled from the seam and trailed over her wrist. In her nervousness she may have cut too deep. Wouldn't that be her luck? To die from self-inflicted injury while trying to escape. She giggled and half sobbed at the same time. Oh what a mess she'd become.

Sucking in another breath as she prepared to slice the other wrist, she turned automatically to the movement beside her. _Brun_ was on the other side of the bars watching her intently. As far as entertainment went, in her madness she must have made a great sight in the dim cage.

She wanted to let him know that she wasn't giving up. For some reason the thought of seeming weak in his hidden eyes was unforgiving. Of all the species on this stupid planet, he was the only one considered remotely non-hostile toward her. Humans couldn't exactly gain the bragging right this time around. And as for _Hiss_, he still remained the vilest creature beside Phineas she could think of.

The aforementioned creature had sidled closer to her side of the bars perhaps drawn by the tang of blood. She ignored the menace and with a deft motion, slit another cut across her right wrist. This time the cut was shallow, either due to her nerves or some amount of control she'd lacked before. Maybe she wouldn't bleed to death after all.

Now all she had to do was make herself comfortable and wait for the guards to come. They should have been on their way once they'd noticed the camera's blocked field of vision. Once their suspicion was roused they would, hopefully, bust into the room and find her in her attempted suicide.

Knowing her luck they would be late and she actually _would_ die from the anemia before they noticed. It was a sorry outlook but at least Hallquist would be out of a patient and she'd have some half-ass revenge.

Scooting back until she could lean against the rough wall, she laid her hands palm down beside her and watched the blood start to pool. The crimson puddle on the left was growing at an unnerving rate. It was at this time that Lee figured she didn't put enough thought into her plan. Really it wasn't much of a plan to begin with. Hope the guards would be alarmed enough to trigger the alarm. Then she was going to what? Somehow get by them and out to the hallway? After that she'd have two very pissed guards on her tail, leaving a trail of blood because she'd stupidly cut her wrist too deep, and then she'd have to trip the main doors for this wing. Even though this floor was mainly deserted and still not in 100% working condition, there was still a whole facility full of guards, doctors, and one maniac whose every whim was catered to, above her.

Clenching the sharpened plastic in her right hand she snorted and said aloud, "What the hell was I thinking?" She doubted either _Hiss_ or _Brun_ would answer her. So far they'd made poor cell mates. _Hiss_ could be counted on to make a decidedly hostile move toward her at any hour of the day depending on his general level of consternation. And _Brun_…she never knew what that behemoth was going to do.

Lazily her head lolled on her shoulder and she looked over at the big guy. He was still crouched nearby watching her with that extreme alertness that she was getting to know him for. Lifting the blade, she saluted him before dropping her hand again and sliding the blade under her thigh. Closing her eyes, she relaxed against the cool surface and waited…

_~*~_

Her mind was floating through a gray fog and mixed feelings when she heard a quiet growl beside her. In all her time in the cell, she'd come to recognize that noise _Brun_ made as a sort of warning. She tried to rouse herself out of the fog her mind seemed to steep in and drew in a large breath. It wasn't long before the door to her cell was flung open and two men entered. She heard all this but kept her eyes closed and her body relaxed.

"What the--" It was Pavla.

"The little bitch has tried to off herself. I knew this was going to happen." And there was Maynard's too calm drawl.

She knew those voices so well. She _hated_ them. It took a strong will not to jerk away from the figure crouching over her. Whoever it was, lifted her left arm and squeezed the wound painfully hard to stop the blood flow.

Near the door, Pavla continued, "What the hell should we do? Hallquist finds out about this and he'll skin us alive."

Maynard was the one holding her wrist in a death grip; as he answered Pavla's question, Lee had to fight not to jerk away from him in disgust. How could she have found his hold before even remotely comforting? "He's not going to skin us alive. He said it himself, she was dying. She's just trying to do his job faster. This idiot doesn't know how lucky she got off. Not like her friends. Phineas can't get his head away from this one."

"Not like the little one. Remember how much she cried and cried? Goddamn, I got tired of her voice." Pavla sighed as if all the weight of the world was on him.

Below Maynard's hand, the muscles in Lee's arm _twitched_ with the anger flooding through her body. _How dare they? __**How**__**dare they?**_Talking about her comrades like she wasn't here. Like she was nothing. Like they were all nothing!

Frowning and sensing something amiss (perhaps tipped by the suddenly erratic heartbeat underneath his finger tips), Maynard leaned back and said, "Something isn't ri-"

He never got to finish his sentence. With a cry of pure rage, Lee swung the knife at his face with as much force as she could muster. The honed blade slid through flesh and cartilage with sickening ease. Under her hand she felt the tissue and the hot scalding spray of blood douse her. Maynard choked on a cry and fell onto his back, groping at his face. She'd caught him across the right side and the front, cleaving the eye and slicing into the ridge of his nose. It wasn't fatal, but it sure as hell was painful!

Before she could look up to find Pavla, a hard kick caught her under her chin and flung her back against the bars. Dazed, she didn't offer any fight whatsoever when the light-haired man pinned her down and began choking her; spouting obscenities with enough force to spit on her. Her arms were too weak to push against him and the knife in her hand was forgotten. Spots danced before her eyes and burst in strange, dazzling fireworks as he worked on crushing her throat with his thumbs.

Until, that is, a huge darkly taloned hand reached through the bars and grabbed his face. The claws dug gouges into the soft skin and Pavla's cry was drowned out by the bestial _roar_ of _Brun_. The guard's hands let go of her to grope for the gun on his side. Gagging and choking on the sudden influx of air, Lee wrestled with his own for the weapon. It was an wholly uneven fight. Her hands were weak from the loss of blood that still trickled from her wrists while Pavla was blinded and having the worst alien-induced headache imaginable.

He freed the weapon from the holster but Lee's own fumbling fingers pushed it down away from _Brun's _torso. For a moment she envisioned herself being shot through the heart, all quick and efficient. Bang, no more Lee. Why that didn't fill her with dread or fear was confusing. But that didn't happen.

Pavla bit the large humanoid's hand hard enough to draw blood and a cranky snarl of pain. It didn't loosen the grip, only made him squeeze harder. Drops of his blood patterned Lee's face as she squirmed underneath the guard, pinned from the waist down and still trying to wrest control of the gun. When _Brun's_ talons broke through the bone, Pavla's hands spasmed and a round burst off from the semi-automatic gun shooting into the cell across from them.

_Hiss _howled in extreme rage, writhing wildly as the shots slammed into his arms and back. Finally the creature's curiosity had gotten the better of him and rewarded him with a harsh sting or five. The din created from this creature, Pavla, and _Brun_ was becoming to much for Lee. She let go of the gun and scrambled to get out from under him, keening to herself.

With a growl everyone in close proximity felt in their bones, _Brun _decided he'd had enough of the squirming human in his hand and swiftly snapped his head to the side, breaking his neck neatly. He then simply let go and eased to his feet, grumbling to himself. The dead weight of the guard pinned Lee down long enough for Maynard to finally make it to his feet.

Voice thick with an emotion (for once in his life!) he cursed at Lee, squinting at her with one good eye. The other was a ruined mess leaking down the side of his face. "You…bitch…" His own weapon was in hand and pointing at her. He wouldn't miss, and she would die. _This is it_, she thought with mute wonder…

A sickening squelching, brittle noise broke the air as _Hiss'_ bladed tail tore through Maynard's ribcage sending blood and tissue spraying across the room. The handsome guard's face was frozen in a grimace of shock as his body spasmed and gave in to death. With a weak clatter, the gun fell from his hand to the ground.

This last act of violence was too much for Lee. She hurled to her feet, falling onto her hands and knees when she slipped in the ichor pooling on the ground from the three humans. The door was still open as they'd left it, so sure they'd walk out of the cell. And hell, hadn't she been sure they would have too? In her race, she forgot the gun, instead clinging to the knife, and focused on the console beside the door that controlled the three cages. The alarm button was big as day and easy to find. She punched the button and was rewarded with a compound wide panic. Lights, sirens, total lock down. How long it would last was questionable when they figured out it was she who had tripped it. But now was her chance. The door at the end of the hall could be tricked into opening and she would be free of this level. Free to escape if she kept ahead of them.

Two steps away, the sirens ringing in her ears, she still didn't miss the growling and rage filled combative roar coming from the cages. _Brun…_she'd forgotten about him…Sparring a few moment, she fled back to his door and peered in. He was standing, battle ready and waiting for…what? Dashing to her open door, she found the answer. _Hiss' _vile, awful, useful blood was eating through the bars separating the cages from one another. He would be free very soon and judging by the way he applied the disgusting substance, he knew it. With a small cry, she slammed her door shut to buy her more time from him.

_But Brun! He's trapped…unless…_Unless she used the time she had to open the door to open his instead. Her own freedom, or sacrifice it to free him from his cage and certain death. Time was of the essence and still she argued with herself for an answer. She was terrified of him. There would be nothing to stop him from killing her if he was out. But he hadn't before…he'd even saved her…

She didn't even realize there were tears trailing down her cheeks as she mentally gave up on the plan of escape and instead jammed the knife into the card reader controlling the locking mechanisms to his door. Nothing happened. No matter how she wrenched and dug with the blade into the machine, it wouldn't open. Inside the cage she heard _Hiss_ burst through the bars and clamber into her cage. Grinding her teeth she attacked the machine with as much force as she'd struck at Maynard, though her arms felt like leaden weights.

_Open you fucking machine! Do it!_ On the fifth strike something tripped in the console and the door to her right opened with a hard clack. Giving an exultant cry, she flung it open and found herself face to face with _Brun_…no bars to keep them apart and her safe. He loomed over her and the height difference made her dizzy. Her eyes, wild with panic and shock, traced over his face plate and all she saw was her owlish reflection staring wide-eyed back at her. That frightened her into movement more than his presence alone.

She turned and fled from him and the cells. Racing away from the door that wouldn't open at the end no matter how hard she stabbed at it. Away from freedom and deeper into the compound. Here the construction was halted and unfinished. The ground turned to carved stone out of the mountain they laid under. Trailing footprints of blood, she fled into the darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

_Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow._

_~Dorothy Thomas_

Chapter Ten

Lee wanted nothing more than to lay down in the hallways and sleep forever. It would be cold, the floor would be hard and rough, and she would surely die. But for that first few moments of rest; it would perhaps be well worth it. She didn't. Instead, fighting lethargy and a myriad of other symptoms that slowly killed the human body, she continued on deeper into the unfinished complex.

The hallways here were dug straight out of the rock and made the rough hewn tunnels feel like they were closing in. The only lights were emergency lights that gave everything an orange, sickly glow that made the surrealistic nature of this building and its inhabitants only grow. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare. Maybe she was back home and was just sick. Fever giving her body a fit of dreams. That had to be it.

With every footstep over the unhealthy ground, reality insisted it was still there and waiting for her. She stumbled along with no discernable path past construction machines and tools all left for the time being. No other human was down here to lend her miserable existence companionship. Not that she would have wanted their company.

_They're monsters…all of them. Everything in here is a monster…I may be one too. _Surely that was the secret of this domain. Everything that came in here left as a monster. Phineas turned them all into beasts.

A small front loader was left by its lonesome and she was drawn to the Plexiglas cab. Popping the door open, she crawled inside and sat in the seat. She couldn't drive the machine but it offered a bit more warmth than the frigid hallways and the padded seat felt like a guilty luxury. There was plenty in this machine that she could use. She found a large flask wedged between the controls and the door. Whatever was inside smelled and tasted pungent and strong. She splashed the liquid over the cuts on her wrist and hissed at the astringent burn. It was better than nothing. Mind less hazy by the alcohol burn, she felt around the interior until she found a small first aid kit under the seat. Fingers unresponsive with fatigue and blood loss she somehow managed to wrap a layer of gauze around both wrists. That made a world of difference somehow.

"I want to sleep…" Her voice had a muted quality and yet sounded entirely too loud and out of place in this orange hell hole. The urge to close her eyes was too hard to resist and slowly but surely Lee dropped into a dreamless slumber, curled up in the small chair. There were no dreams to wake her. Only when her leg slipped off of the seat, from its wedged position under her other thigh, did she startle awake.

Blinking hazy eyes at the unchanged hallway, she contemplated her next move. What could she do? _I need to go up to get out…Can't get on the elevators down here without a pass code. And I can't get a pass from the guards. And what about Brun and Hiss? They've got to be free…_

Lee worried her lower lip with her teeth while climbing out of the cab and setting her bare feet back onto the harsh floor. The nap had done nothing to revitalize her energy. Head pounding and body pulling her mind down with it's various aches and pains, she set off down the tunnel looking for anything that would give her an idea how to get out. Unfinished rooms, and more machinery kept her company.

About to give up and head back the way she'd escaped, her dull blue eyes fell upon a open square in the ceiling above her head. Air vent shaft… _Which…would lead to the upper floors…I'll bet I'm just narrow enough to make it through…_ All she'd have to worry about was her shoulders squeezing through the small square and she wasn't built all that wide. But the slick metal walls were straight up. How could she possibly keep her grip to climb even one story?

Eyes roving around the area she again returned to the machinery and miscellaneous items gathered about. In a tool box she dug out a old tool belt and cinched it around her waist. _Why hadn't I thought of keeping these things before? And how can these workers leave everything but one measly shirt?_ Her chest was just as bare as it had been when she'd fled her prison; her pert breasts peaked from the chill.

She crouched before the tool box and dug through the objects, picking what could possibly be useful. A small lighter, flathead screwdriver, heavy standard adjustable wrench (the weight of the item being much more comforting as a blunt force weapon…a thought which should have frightened her instead of being a boon), pliers, and a set of well worn leather gloves. The belt was heavy around her waist in a good way. She now felt more level and steady and just remembered the first aid box in the cab. That went into the belt as well. All these items were useful, but it would not making climbing the sheer vent easy at all. Standing from the box and turning, a spool of black tape caught her eye. The plastic material shone dully in the orange light and reminded her, uneasily, of _Hiss._

Grimacing in distaste, she nevertheless grabbed the spool and dragged a ladder over to the vent. Once, her father had introduced her to such things. He had been a day laborer working in construction. Old habits died hard and even when his enterprises had made a great deal of money, he kept working on projects on his own. Proud of his own work. She'd been young and curious and followed her papa around while her mother never had the energy to entertain her. So when something malfunctioned on the Station, he would go fix it with his daughter in tow.

_Who would have known being a tomboy would be so useful? _The ladder was cumbersome and almost too heavy for her. Her muscle mass had shrunk considerably but sheer determination fueled by many curse words urged her on. She finally got the ladder leaning against the wall under the vent hole and had to sit to catch her breath.

_I'll never make it…I can't even do menial tasks without feeling like I'm dying…_Nothing like pointless pitying to make her rear firmly stay on the floor. But the longer she sat there, the angrier at herself she became. _…Lee, grow up! What would mom say?…Bad question, we know what she said. But what would dad say? He'd just tell you to stop whining and do something about it. And I am…but I could use some help…_

Balefully eyeing the tunnel, she wrapped the tape around her hands and feet. After a thought, around her knees too. It was a hope, a small one, that the friction from the tape against the smooth metal would make the climb easier. Perhaps she wouldn't slip so easily. _We'll see…_ She stretched neatly, before climbing the steps and easing her upper half into the shaft. It was a tight fit at first till she figured out how to wedge her shoulders just right. Looking up into the inky black tunnel, she shuddered. _God…I hope I don't run into a tight curb I can't fit through…then I'll just be stuck. Then they'll be wondering what that smell is next month…_Her dry chuckle echoed hollowly back to her.

So began the long climb. Arms outstretched, she heaved herself up until her legs were into the tunnel and could brace her. Shoulder muscles heaved and pulled as she slowly headed upward. She had no sense of time to begin with, now Lee was lost in a vacuum of cold metal and darkness with no sound but her own harsh noises. Too many times did she slip, only to catch herself awkwardly and earn a new ache. Always questing forward, up; she crept forward until light began to turn the gloom into a gray haze.

_Another tunnel…I must have climbed one floor…just one…oh god…_She simply could not climb any further. The tunnel ran perpendicular to her vent. With shaking limbs ready to give out, she wormed into the new vent way and collapsed onto her front with a muted groan. Dully, she noted this tunnel was just a bit larger and had many branching paths to follow.

_I feel like a rat in a maze…_Heaving herself forward, she winced at the hollow popping and reverberation of the thin metal. It wasn't too terribly loud but it was noticeable if one took the pains to listen. _I'm going to get caught…I'm going to-_ footsteps pounding on the floor by the grate she was laying behind stopped all thoughts. Sidling closer, she peered out and found herself at ground level, looking at a pair of legs as a few guards tersely spoke.

"-orphs escape. The entire lab is rui-" The rest was cut off as they continued down the hall and were replaced by another set. For ten minutes she lay quietly and listened. What she heard, she refused to feel guilty for.

"-wenty specimens all gone! Broken fre-"

"-humanoid disappeared! No sign bu-"

"Leah. Yes, _his_ Leah. Killed two me-"

"-ave it's weaponry on level two wit-"

_Boy, do they have it wrong. I'm not "his" and I didn't kill those guards…I didn't even kill one of them…_ The base was in turmoil all because of her. How had she done that? _I just wanted to get out…if they'd only let me go…_ Sighing lowly, she continued crawling onward, looking for her own way out.

The footsteps and voices soon faded away as she made her way to less populated rooms. It seemed they were trying to vacate the facility as violence erupted from below. She bet it had plenty to do with that killing machine, _Hiss._ Insulated in her metal tunnel against the outside world for now, she couldn't know what chaos was destroying the facility from inside out.

It was while she was squeezing past a snug cinch in the air vent tunnel, that she heard faint scratching echoing down the vent behind her. It had been deathly silent for too long and the pitter-pat of nails and movement sent chills prickling up her spine. Breath shortened in near panic, she rolled onto her back and looked over her body, down the tunnel she'd just traveled. There was a short curve where light broke through a grate just around the bend cutting the metal tunnel with bars of light. In that light a shadow cut a clear figure…of something alien. She squinted at the shape, not quite recognizing what she was seeing until a tail-like shape flickered slowly.

_It's one of those things!_ her mind shrilled silently. Those god-awful abominations that clung to the faces of their victims and violated them! It was not a fate she intended to have. Teeth clamped together hard enough to grind, she rolled over and crawled for the nearest grate. Bedamned the soldiers! She'd rather a bullet to the head than that thing _touching_ her.

It, of course, heard her movement and skittered after her faster than could be believed. The grate was made of thin metal and had little give. She beat on it in a frenzy trying to break free before the monster could close the distance. Eyes locked on its slick form in dread, she saw its legs tense to jump. In desperation, she took a page from its book and crouched her own legs, shoving off against the tunnel wall and into the vent with enough force to knock the vent open. The creature's leap took it just past her legs as she tumbled out with a small, hoarse cry.

Splayed on her stomach, she rolled over in time to see the nasty thing making for the opening and jammed the flimsy vent back over the hole barely in time to block it. The grate was crooked and she couldn't get it back into it's fitting because of the thrashing, desperate moves on the other side. The thing was stronger than it looked and horribly fast. A large tail struck through a gap and wrapped tightly around her wrist hard enough to hurt. Then she screamed because that was just too much for one person to take!

"Let go of me!" Hands braced against the vent, she kicked at its tail with her foot but the bare appendage did nothing but make its grip tighten to numbing forces. Frustrated and scared to the point of tears, she ignored the cascade down her cheeks and tried to think her way out of the stalemate. She couldn't stab it as the blood was extremely dangerous and getting it to let go wasn't going to happen easily.

As more of its legs snaked out of the vent and tried to find leverage to free itself, Lee plunged her over the tool belt looking for anything that could work. Her fingers closed over the lighter and without much thought to it, she held the tool under its tail and struck a flame into life. There was a few seconds of total stillness and silence before the thing started to writhe and screech in torment. It quickly let go and retreated into the vent away from the hateful flame.

Face alight with relief and saturated with tears, she slammed the vent grate back into place and looked around for something to wedge against it. She was behind a desk, in a small office. With her foot, she dragged a chair to her and knocked it down, wedging it against the vent and the desk. It was crude but it would have to do. Eager to put as much space as she could between herself and that thing, she crawled to her feet, momentarily reeling from the sheer tightness and ache that had settled into her muscles. All over it felt like she was constricted and being pulled at the same time.

Limping to the door, she slipped it open long enough to peek out into the empty hallway. It was quiet and a path of debris showed the nervous rush that had heralded the occupants evacuation from this section. Clenching the lighter in her hands, for its paltry protection, she slowly crept down the hall and listened hard for any sound. There was nothing as exciting as the climb or the fight with that vile, nasty in the vents. Just the quiet pad of her bare feet on the floor as she followed the curve of the hallway. Lee had a rough guess as to where she was going. The general layout on every floor was the same for the first few, but as the lab sunk deeper into the hard rock, the floors became more complex and secretive. There were holding cells here and below. Perhaps even above. She shuddered, imaging fresh horrors of what this maze could be hiding.

_I need a elevator or stairs…wait, he didn't have stairs this far down. Phineas and his screwed up logic didn't believe they should be that accessable. Who doesn't have stairs in a building?? _While debating such holes in logic from the universe's supposedly smartest mind, she detected a faint noise echoing through the empty halls. Not human footsteps…too fast and horribly familiar.

Biting back a small cry, she wrenched her neck to look behind her and exploded into a terrified run forward by what she found. Behind her, ticking their way down the hallway like overgrown ticks, three of those horrid face-raping things, that were following her! She could barely take on one. How was she supposed to survive three of them?! Her feet pounded on the hard, polished floor sending the ache deep into her bones all the way up to her teeth. Or was she clenching them in dread?

Too scared to look over her shoulder to see if they were coiling their tails, tensing to close that distance, she had a perfect view of the large mottled arm that reached out into the hallway from a doorway. Running too fast to dodge or even think of avoiding the grab, Lee was jerked off of her feet and thrown into the darkened room with enough force to send her sliding a few feet upon landing. Stunned, she lay on her side, cheek against the floor, and watched _Brun_ catch the first of the three nasty things as it whipped through the air. With much aplomb, he bashed the creature against the wall by its tail with enough force to splatter it's blood in a corrosive arc. Transfixed, Lee watched the blood eat into the wall while he dealt with another by simply snapping it's legs and chucking the crippled thing into the hallway like it was a piece of trash.

…the third was missing.

In spite of his earlier violence, _Brun_ shut the door quietly and almost gently. Perhaps respecting the soft wood against his iron might. Grumbling and chittering softly to himself, he turned to watch Lee who still hadn't picked herself up from the floor. Now that she was horizontal, the poor girl had no urge to move at all. Despite the large threat that he could pose.

The silence, though, that she could do without. She'd had enough of uncomfortable tomb silence to last her a lifetime. "You got out…" Redundant and foolish but it's all she could think to say.

He snorted. The sound was muted and lost its derisive note behind the curious mask and the room. Ignoring her for the moment, he crept around the room near silently but for the small click of his claws on the floor. They were in a private quarter that was almost as small as the prison cells they'd escaped from. In the corner was a narrow cot, the covers tossed about and halfway on the floor. Lee was laying behind a modest desk and watching his movements in between the metal legs.

Nothing escaped his scrutiny. He even poked open a two small doors to the side, revealing a half bath and a closet. The bathing room had Lee's attention more than he did at the moment. Pushing herself up to her feet, she gained her balance after a lovely fight with vertigo and fatigue. The throw and landing hadn't been kind, she'd bruised her thigh by landing on the tool belt.

_Thank you, Brun. Why do you have to manhandle me so?_ Shaking her head, she limped for the restroom but as she passed AC vent a few feet above her head, movement arrested both her and _Brun's _attention. Legs, spindly like long fingers, reached out of the vent, grabbing for her. Screeching in revulsion, she backed away and into the desk. Those nasty things were everywhere! Even the humanoid behind her grunted lowly. How many of these things had he dealt with alone?

_I've had just about enough of this! _Snarling in hatred, she shoved herself off the desk, the lighter still in one hand and raised it to the vent. With a un-intimidating click, the flame sprung to life in between her and the vent. Holding the lighter steadily, her other hand crept to the flask and deftly uncapped it before she took a long swig. Drawing in a deep breath through her nose, she spewed the alcohol over the flame and right through the vent scorching the nasty thing that waited for them. Any victory at its cries were lost as she felt the burn flash flicker quick across her lips. Ouch…

The small burn was well worth the effort. Above her the vent was empty and they were alone…They…Returning the lighter to her belt, she cautiously looked over her shoulder and found _Brun _studying her with a indefinable expression, utterly silent. She wasn't entirely comfortable with the quiet scrutiny. It was like he was seeing her as something different each time. Like an exotic bug. Shaking her head, she crept away from him and into the bathroom, closing the door between them.

The light she switched on was weak but she didn't need much to turn on the sink and immerse her hands into the hot water. Blissful warmth seeped into her skin, momentarily chasing away the chill that had clung to her. But it wasn't enough. Shuddering hard enough to clack her teeth together, she unbuckled the belt and dropped it on the floor before stepping into the shower and flinging on the water as hot as it would go. Scalding water hurt her skin but still she wasn't warm enough, couldn't cleanse the chill away.

Only until she'd started crying and sobbed hard enough to punish her ribs, did she finally stop shaking. The water began to feel too hot and the steam was too much. Breath heaving in shallow, wheezing pants, she stumbled out of the shower and caught her reflection in the mirror. A vile, ugly monster parading around as her looked back at her. _Everything leaves this place as a monster…_ Balling up her fist, she punched the reflection hard enough to shatter the glass and blinked in dumbfounded shock at the absence of pain and the bright twinge of blood over her busted knuckles.

"…I'll be damned…why couldn't the mirrors be this flimsy in _all_ of the rooms? Phineas, you cost-cutting _asshole…_" Still pondering over her rotten luck, she flinched when the door to the room was smacked open by a very un-amused _Brun. _He gave her a look dryer than the desert and pointedly focused on her hand.

Suddenly, Lee cared a lot more about her stupid actions…what had she been thinking? Before she could bolt the room, he shouldered his way into the cramped space and caught her arm when she tried retreating from his huge form. The size difference was devastatingly overwhelming in this tiny restroom and Lee felt the natural panic his near presence evoked well up again.

"No, no! Don't-" Her cries were cut off when he shoved her hand under the spout and flicked on the water. Pulling on her hand, which was like pulling on her own appendage caught in a vice, she wanted away from him more than anything. "Let go. Let go of me!" _Why doesn't anyone listen to me??_

He finally got tired of her caterwauling and snarled lowly once, in warning. The harsh sound was enough to cease her fighting in a way Pavla or the late Maynard could not. Finished cleaning the blood from her fingers, he crouched before her, nearly pulling her off her feet at the movement, and pulled the tool belt over with a finger. Snatching the first aid kit up, he smacked her over the head with it hard enough to hurt.

"Ow!" Sullenly she rubbed at her scalp. "What is _wrong with you?" _ This time he let go when she pulled to be let free, even offered the box again with a faint chittering that sounded suspiciously like an amused chuckle at her expense.

With a scowl that could rival _Hiss' _hatchet face, Lee grabbed the box and moodily bandaged her hand. During, _Brun_ stayed crouched before her and watched her keenly. Crouched, he was level with her ribs and she became awfully aware of just how nude she was. The small shorts she wore were soaked through and clinging to her; the only protection she had to hide her nubile form. Though, she didn't think he was at all interested in her flesh. And the only interest she had was the sheer differences between them. Where she was soft, he was all muscle. Her bones structure was delicate while he seemed to be made of steel and metal with a covering of that curiously mottled skin. Time and again her eyes tracked back to his hair and his hair.

"What's so important that I bandage my hand? It's just a bruise." She was sure he wouldn't answer, but bedamned if he didn't tap the back of her hand over the bandage with a dark talon and then, (gently, if that could be believed) tapped her nose. She still flinched away expecting him to poke her viciously but the trill he gave her calmed the nervous tic. He watched her expectantly, the blank mask reflecting her gaze back at her in that unsettling way. It took a moment for her to connect the dots but she caught on, remembering _Hiss_ and his fearful mannerisms.

"…they can smell the blood…" An emphatic, short nod was her answer. That buoyed her spirits for some bizarre reason. "…this communicating thing is easy…"

He snorted and gave her a shove in the middle before standing and returning to the other room. Having no idea how to even fathom that gesture and too tired to try, she meekly followed, hugging the tool belt to her bare chest. _I don't know what to do next or where to go. I'm afraid to even leave this room and…_ Her pale eyes followed the narrow lines of his back. She would admit that with him, she didn't fear the other monsters or the other humans. She only feared him. And of the terrors she'd faced, she'd rather stick with him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Oooh God, I am so sorry for the delay. Hiss, Brun, and Lee hid themselves so deep into my gray brainal matter that I had to hunt them out with sporks.**

_Feelings are not supposed to be logical. Dangerous is the man who has rationalized his emotions._

_~David Borenstein_

Chapter Eleven

Lee woke to utter silence. No nightmares pursued her from the short rest. No memories of her friends or their names on the tip of her tongue. The temptation to lie and sleep had seemed a good indulgence. They weren't particularly in a hurry. At least _Brun _didn't appear to be. He had prowled around the room, presumably blocking any ways for the nasty creatures to get in.

While he'd explored, Lee did a little of her own and discovered a small wardrobe full of handmade clothes. The were in a woman's room but one couldn't guess it by the sparse, impersonal furnishings. Only the assortment of skirts and plain shirts hinted at femininity.

_I'd rather have pants, _she had sourly thought while slipping into the pilfered garments. Once she would have felt odd about wearing someone else's panties or dressing in front of a giant _male_ creature but all she felt was the cool, clean linens and satisfaction of being covered. The skirt and billowing blouse even had color! There was a bit of dismay at how loose the yellow wrap skirt hung around her hips. Whoever owned the garment was petite enough, but Lee had to cinch the ties tighter around her middle to keep them on. Just how much of herself had she lost?

"Good grief, I'm shrinking," she'd murmured. _Brun _hadn't so much as looked her way as she'd peeled off the leftover tape and dressed. Clothed and dry, Lee meandered around the room until she found her way to the soft bed where she was enveloped in soft scents of spice and subtle musk of another female. She thought of her mother as she drifted into a light rest. Often her eyes fluttered open to find _Brun_. Outside the cage he was a busy creature that kept moving even if he stayed deadly quiet. It was that calm, calculating grace that lulled her into a deeper slumber.

An expectant silence had her wide-eyed and awake. Her heart positively leapt into her throat when she looked up and found _Brun _standing over her. There was no way he couldn't loom. It was physically impossible with that much bulk and height. He had more presence than anyone she'd ever met, save maybe that awful Hallquist.

One gesture, a quick flicker of his fingers, and he was ready to go with or without her. She stumbled to her feet, the aches and pains at bay, and fled after him wishing for shoes or at least socks for the cold floor. _Who doesn't own socks??_ The slippers had all been too small and slippery on the floor. She could see herself trying to flee from a badguy and falling on her face. Boy, wouldn't that be just lovely. Belatedly she remembered her tool belt and also pilfered a lab coat that was ugly (and _white_) but it would keep her warm. Now that she had access to clothes, she couldn't keep enough of them on.

The hallway was eerily quiet as was most of the compound. No distant shouts could easily penetrate the layers of rock above or below them. Lee shivered and sidled closer to her strange companion, trying not to imagine all sorts of hell that could be happening just floors away. For if _Brun_ was free, _Hiss_ most assuredly was.

_Brun_ had a habit of absentmindedly clicking to himself, a sound she found oddly likeable for the clean, distinct noise. _Does it serve a purpose? Or is he just a ADD kid who can't keep still or quiet? For that matter, how old is this guy? _She almost wanted to grin but the choking feeling of walking on eggshells scared any humor out of her mind. Somewhere there were monsters just laying in wait. _Brun's_ extra alert posture and militant perusal of the hallways and each and every door they neared only heightened that claustrophobic feeling. Lee didn't doubt for a moment that if they were attacked, she would be expected to fend for herself and hold her own. _Brun_ didn't seem the knight-in-shining armor type and only seemed to step in when she was actively trying not to die.

_Not like I'd stand aside and just rely on him for anything anyways. He may be temporarily on my side but that's because we have mutual enemies. What happens if we both get out of here? _Mild suspicion pulled her studious gaze to him and she noted details she hadn't noticed before.

For a not-so knight, he _did_ have armor of a type. Bands of metal on his shoulders and forearms. Even on his shins and feet. Squinting in the dark, she saw brackets and slots where, she surmised, more armor and attachments could be added. Not unlike the soldiers stationed on her father's space station. The meshed fabric that pulled tightly over his body was a puzzle. How the netting offered any protection against an attack was unfathomable. _Must be really hardy stuff…_

Then she noticed the smaller "decorations" adorning his body; a body that would make the most faithful weight lifter envious. Hanging from his hip and the coverings was a strand of carved beads, exotic feathers, and bones. _What kind of little creatures were those?_ Chancing the safety of the corridor, she moved closer to look at the skulls. Large optical sockets and a long snout full of needle-sharp teeth. She couldn't think of any creature she'd ever seen or heard of that fit the trophy's look.

She surfaced from her scrutiny and only now noticed that they'd stopped when a hard finger _flicked_ her forehead painfully hard. "Ow!" she yelped, covering the spot, and staggering back a step or two. "Quit hurting me!"

Lee flung her hands down by her side in a aggravated, but no less fed-up, manner and glared at him which he matched full on by taking a step into her space and glaring back with a low rumble…at least she thought he was glaring. She could _feel_ the heated look but couldn't see past that damnable war mask.

Gulping loudly, her throat tight with timid fear for he was still so unknown and could _break_ her if he chose…but she couldn't back down. Not when her safety with him hinged on a sliver of begrudging respect. A respect she had to literally kill for. Or try to, as she had been unsuccessful at killing anyone so far. How was it that Pavla and Maynard hadn't even been in their cages, but _Brun_ and _Hiss_ had both killed them?

"I was just curious…the-" she gestured to the strand at his hip, not knowing what they were called, "…are interesting. I like them." Would flattery possibly work? She damn near had heart failure when he chittered quietly to himself then _purred_ for a moment so quick, she could have imagined it. _Flattery does work! He's a vain one… _

An abrupt turn and he dismissed her by continuing up the hallway. Blowing a low puff of air out in relief, she followed and vowed not to get so wrapped up in trying to puzzle out what he was. It wasn't like she had time, anyhow. Any minute they could be under attack…

…any minute…

Which stretched on for _hours_. Slowly and methodically they searched through rooms and hallways that made mazes and circles. It was frustrating work and there were so many doors and rooms. The only consolation prize she got out of this tedious, stressful work was a plate of cookies left in a conference room. She'd gobbled them up after politely offering them to her companion. He'd turned up his nose at the offer with a dry snort. She ate too quickly and had to run to the nearest levorotary to heave up the food. Too heavy sweets on a stomach that had grown tiny and was used to being empty. After that lesson, she got one cookie down and felt much accomplished.

Then it was back to searching for them. This whole floor, that was 100 yards if she remembered the layout perfectly, was dedicated to the small offices and dorms. There were too many small rooms where anything could be hiding and yet they found no people or beasts.

In his rush, Hallquist had rushed the development of every part of the building but the labs where he worked. Most of the elevators weren't complete. _Like getting out of here wasn't a big damn important thing. Hallquish, you are a fool! You always have been! _Lee could have cried with frustration for every empty and unused elevator they had to pass by. Trapped floors below the surface with seemingly no way out.

It wasn't like there weren't any stairs for them to use. There were four sets, two on each side of the underground building. _Brun_ and she had peeked through the doors and made the climb nearly to the next floor when they'd found their way blocked by heavily armed guards. This time it was Lee's turn to stop _Brun_ and save his ass. Before he could go tearing off after them and no doubt getting a rain of bullets down on her vulnerable hide, she'd tugged on him and when that hadn't worked, she'd snatched the charms right off his hip and fled down the stairs as quietly as possible. And boy wasn't he just _thrilled_ with her when they finally reached the floor and he could charge after her like a bull.

He'd finally cornered her, _literally_ in a corner where she'd huddled in a tight ball with his trophy belt offered to him in a trembling hand. She was so sure he was going to hit her or do something…but instead he'd snatched the pilfered goods back with a pissy snarl. Trying to explain to him why she'd suddenly turned thief had frustrated them both.

"Bullets can kill me!"

He'd made a noise like, _So? That's because you're weak._ And of course she was weaker! Compared to him, everything had to seem much weaker.

"I'm not you! I'm not one of your kind." She was going out on a limb here; trying to appeal to his nature but not knowing how his kind were. What if he was an exception to his race? What if he was the _only_ one to his race? What the hell was he?? She had nothing to go on here but the fact that she had to rely on him and his mercurial mood-swings.

Another doubt that bothered her was just how much of her language could he know? Yes, he understood some words just fine but often when she broke the silence between them, he dismissed her easily. For all his haughty attitude, she was beginning to think he didn't understand parts of what she was saying and therefore, shrugged off the attempts at communication.

…_Just like a man._

Begrudgingly he let her out of the corner and onto her feet. She was sure he was trying to teach her a lesson but by now, she could care less about learning some semblance of alien manners. Keeping in tact and getting out of this building was the only drive in her mind. If she could do so without him, she would have been out by now.

Without a word between them, they both set off to find another way out and all too soon their search was exhausted. The stairwells were too problematic with guards or a feel that something was off. In the last one they'd ducked into, _Brun_ had halted her and tilted his head listening to something she couldn't hear. Whatever it was made him growl quietly to himself and abruptly turn face and abandon that area.

Lee was about to give in to a small hysterical (but well earned, she felt) fit when he shoved her toward the nearest elevator doors and wrenched them open with one massive hand. The elevator shaft descended into the darkness below them. Lee swallowed thickly and stepped back. She was still tired and weak from recent events. A few cookies weren't going to restore her strength.

"It's broken." She gave him a dubious look and pressed the dead call button for good measure. _Brun_ seemed to take in a deep breath (the gesture possibly meaning _you are driving me crazy and if I don't count to ten and breath deeply, I am going to kill you_) before calming pointing to the cab just above them.

"Oh…" _So the elevators do work. Someone just shut them off. Probably an emergency thing. But how does this help us at all?_

Air flowed up from the cool darkness below heightening just how large this elevator shaft was. Shuttle cars could fit easily in the hollowed interior. The cab for their side of the doors wasn't in sight. Either above or below them. But the neighboring cab for the next doors lurked nearby like an ugly present. It was above her head by at least a three feet and set a few feet out from the opening. Too far above it's own set of doors to be useful on that side. This side it was just unfairly out of reach.

It was a freight elevator, used to haul supplies and was made like a metal cage with grates making up it's sides. Primitive and really, such a stupid design. Even if she jumped, she'd miss the edge of the cab completely and go plummeting stories down into the pitch black gloom.

Leaning over the shaft, judging the distance to the stalled elevator-Lee was unprepared for a huge, clawed hand to clamp onto the back of her lab coat and hoist her out over the pit. She yelped and twisted around to cling to _Brun's _outstretched arm. Impatient, he shook her hold, but she only held tighter and hooked a leg around his back for better leverage while mewling in fear. It was a long way down and clearly he was a sadist!

He growled angrily and pointed with his free hand to the cab doors which were open and waiting for them. Oh. Lee begrudgingly let go and swung loose, fear welling in her belly the whole time her feet dangled over the dark hole. What if her jacket ripped? What if he just let go? What if-

She reached out and grasped at the edges of the elevator cab but wasn't able to reach them. Instead she had to hook her fingers through the grated sides of the cage. Once both hands were curled around the frame, she turned fearfully to him and whispered, "Don't let go."

Not once in her life had she ever been able to perform a pull-up. Having her life depend on one now was disheartening. _I'm too weak for this…I can't do it! _

Abruptly, _Brun _let go and she dangled over the pit with a squeal of pure fear. He didn't give her enough time to have a true freak out. He leapt out over the pit and grabbed onto the wired mess sides of the cab and hung beside her. Just because he was sharing the death-defying adventure didn't make it feel better.

"You are the _worst_…" Her fingers were killing her and she felt like they were going to break off at any moment. The slight rocking in the cab from _Brun's_ mighty weight was not helping calm her by any means. With a thick swallow, she looked down at her legs, covered in the billowing skirt, as they swung over black nothing.

Movement beside her and _Brun_ was climbing the thick mesh with enough ease to make her every bit of jealous. Until she nearly got a glimpse between his legs as he swung over the side of the cab. _Arugh, oh god. I would have let go if I'd seen something. I swear it._

Monkey see, monkey do. She tried to imitate his effortless climb and found that it was not that easy at all. She couldn't have weighed much but the muscle mass she had before was nearly gone. As long as she didn't move she felt like she could hang there all day but the minute she tried going up, her body felt like it weighed two tons and was dragging her down like an anchor.

"I can't make it…" She ground out as she looked up and found her companion peering down over the side at her with an inquisitive chitter. _I wonder if…_ She had no way of knowing how far her trust with him went but there was one good way of finding out. Gritting her teeth, she let go with one hand reached for him with it. It hurt hanging there waiting for him but not more than the long moment it took for _Brun_ to make a decision.

Huffing, he bent over the side and his fingers wrapped around her wrist in a tight grip to pull her up. How easily he could pick her up! All the way up to his height until she could swing her legs over the side and in the cab. She gave him a mumbled thanks that he ignored in favor of exploring their knew position. There wasn't much in the cab and it didn't take long to figure out that the only way they were going to get up was to…climb the chains and cables holding the elevators in place.

Mutual, silent agreement was reached as they both looked up. Lee made a face. She didn't want to climb anymore. She really, really didn't. The thought of having to hang onto those narrow cords and inch their way up made her want to retch. But everything to do with this building and its residents made her want to vomit.

"Alright…" She bemoaned with a defeated sigh before reaching for the cables that held the cab in place like large spider webs. He halted her movement with a grumbling chitter and grabbed her hand. She could never tell when he was going to behave like an adolescent ten-year-old boy and hurt her with bland indifference or be careful like she was made of glass. This time it was the latter.

He carefully ran a thumb over the bandaged knuckles where bleed seeped sluggishly between the gauze layers. Lee made a soft sound of understanding. She was going to have to do something about the treacherous liquid.

"No worries. I've got an idea." She quickly tugged her hand from his and unwrapped the gauze. It was short work replacing the bandage and this time she taped it into place with the electrical tape. Grinning at her ingenuity, she beamed up at him and started at the reflection on his unique mask. When had she started to smile again?

"Let's get out of here," she muttered. _Brun_ needed no encouragement and was climbing up the line before she could even touch them. She gave him a mock glare with no real rancor. Without his help, she'd not even have made it this far.

"Show off…" She twitched when he gave her a jaunty trill and jerked a finger at her and pointed up. _Get your ass in gear, girl._ There were a few steps to take before she could just climb up the lines like a spider. She tucked her skirt into her waist band to free her legs and wrapped more electrical tape around her other hand (slick palms and smooth cords and chains didn't sound appealing to her). Double-checking that the belt around her hips was secure, and she was ready to go.

At first the climb wasn't that hard. It damn sure wasn't easy, but not as near horrible as she'd thought. Her bare feet and toes made the ascent easier. But after ten minutes, gravity started to reassert itself and her limbs burned with fatigue. They climbed and she panted quietly. _Brun_ made no noise as he ascended the cords. If not for the occasional exhalation or grumble at her turtle pace, she'd think he never breathed.

It didn't occur to her until she was nearly up to the next level that she forgot to ask how far they were going to climb. Did he seriously believe they'd climb the rest of the way up? How far down were they? She had thought they were four or five floors down. But what if in her confusion she was wrong? They could have dragged her twelve floors down for all she knew. She felt like her limbs were going to break off now. Even two more floors at this pace was likely to kill her. What if they fell?

So focused on her climb, she had realized he'd stopped until _Brun_ reached out and grabbed the cable above her hands, halting her movement. He had that look again. Hearing or sensing something she couldn't. Exactly like in the stairwell.

Breath picking up in a harsh gasp of worry, Lee darted looks around trying to sense what it was he knew. Nothing…there was nothing around them but blackness and quiet. His talons ticked over the cable and absentmindedly over her fingers. She almost flinched but a flow of shadows and a trick of light flashing in the gloom opposite of her distracted her from the touch.

_Something is…_

Coiled and sprung like a demonic jack in the box, a vile creature made of shadows and sharp edges leapt at her. Frozen in shock, Lee could only scream and brace herself for the assault until _Brun_ snarled at her ineptitude and ripped her hands from the cable. Her screaming never faltered as she fell free, even if his large hand was wrapped around her wrist and holding her at a dizzying angle.

The Xenomorph crashed into the cords above her and into _Brun_, lashing out with it's whip-like tail. Abruptly her comrade let go of her and she plunged a few feet, too startled to scream because _he had just dropped her!_ In panic, her limbs flailed out and she managed to grab the cables and slide a few feet to a painful halt, fingers burning sullenly from the friction.

Above her the two aliens grappled and batted at each other. Though _Brun_ was strong, the Xenomorph was more at home at such awkward heights and positions. It clung like a malignant tumor to the cables and chains and toyed with _Brun_ while he grew angrier and angrier. Dodging the tail, he ducked under and swung around with one hand to upper cut the creature under it's long jaw, snapping it's head back.

Trembling and wrapped around the cables extra tight, Lee watched and bit through the skin of her lip in helpless fear. She couldn't help him! How could she? She was only getting in the way and they were both so much stronger than she. And she'd always had such a fear of _Hiss_ because he-

_Wait a minute…that's not Hiss…That nasty creature has a ornate head crest thing…this one is smooth and just as ugly…_

How knowing that tamed some of the dread in her belly was a mystery but it did… She could move freely without knowing that her nightmare creature that had shared a cage with her for so long wasn't there. This was just another chump in her way to the top. Hell, it hadn't even been born all that recently if she believed Hallquist's ramblings and he was rarely wrong.

_It's not Hiss…it's not Hiss!_

She was spurned into action when the creature lunged forward and bit _Brun's _shoulder, who bellowed in pain and ire. Fumbling one handed in her tool belt, her fingers closed around the heavy wrench and she swung it up in a wide arc that only gathered momentum until it connected with the Xeno's leg with a sharp crack. Naturally it had to let go of _Brun _to screech in pain. The minute it did, _Brun_ kicked at it with both of this legs and simply knocked it right off the cables.

It was almost absurd how confused all three were when the creature plummeted below so easily; giving them a hissing screech on the way down. A moment of chaos and panic over within a few seconds. Lee looked up at _Brun_ who was watching the creature's fall with a mild sense of perplexed amusement.

'I just want to get out of here." Shaking her head, she climbed back up to his side after returning the wrench to the belt. He gave her a mutual grumbling purr that could be either agreement or _Look, you survived another battle. You're not hopelessly useless just yet._

Blinking in the dim light she paused at the sight of…the luminescent spatter over his shoulder and chest. It looked like glow in the dark paint but smelled…like nothing she'd ever smelt before. Come to think of it, _Brun_ had his own strange scent that was partway offensive and partway comforting.

_Definitely a male_, her mind muttered. Sucking on her own bitten lip that sluggishly oozed blood, she reached out to dip her fingertip into the glowing fluid. Tacky and sticky like her own and slightly reactive to her skin. Watching her with that questioning tick-tick-tick, _Brun_ reached forward to slide a finger over her bleeding lip and hold it before her eyes. Understanding again.

"You're bleeding…" She paused a moment to study him shrewdly in the gloom. "Your blood is really weird…"

_Trill!_

"Well it is! It's glowing!"

He made a big show of flicking off her blood like it was vile. Of course for all she knew it was vile. His own blood was starting to burn her skin. The alkaline levels must have been strong. Who knew what made it glow like that or even what was in it. Suddenly she regretted touching the glowing, slick substance and wiped it off onto her lab coat before joining him once more in the climb.

Above them at the next floor landing the missing elevator sat like a small island onto itself. _Brun _easily leapt the distance between the cables and landed in the cab with a resounding clang of his metal sandals on the steel floor. Lee just stared across the distance with a mulish look.

_Like it's that easy. I can't jump that far. But I can swing…_ Heaving back with her shoulder, she kicked out her legs and set the cable to swinging sluggishly across the shaft. It was dizzying and she was in danger of getting tangled in the multitude of cords and chains holding the cabs aloft. But she was getting closer to the stalled cart. Within moments she was ready to jump.

Mid-air, something _slammed_ into the back of her and sent her down hard into the bottom of the cab floor, knocking the air out of her with a dry choke. Senses addled by the bruising hit, she lay curled up awkwardly even as something massive and heavy loomed over her, sinking it's claws into her back. Pain suffused eyes looked for _Brun_ and only saw a long tail cutting through the air with the deadly dance of a cobra. She knew in her very bones what was pressing the life and air out of her lungs.

_Hiss…_

Before she could start screaming, _Brun_ slammed into the Xenomorph and drove them both into the side of the cab. Talons tore out of her back with a razor's cut and left her bleeding and burning on the floor while they fought so close by. She had to get up…get away. But couldn't move for fear of being skewered by _Hiss'_ tail that continued to cut through the air around _Brun_.

Each hit _Brun_ sent to _Hiss_, it returned with a venomous sibilant whisper and a snap of teeth or drag of claws. Neither was making much way with each other but their deadly stalemate wouldn't last long. She had no way of knowing what mischief _Hiss_ had been up to, but she knew that he was healthier and stronger than her companion. He'd been eating. She had yet to see _Brun_ eat since she'd met him…

Scrambling to her hands and knees in a messy rush, Lee darted away from their feud to the opposite side of the cab. Ahead she found the doors to the elevator shaft were open! Salvation and safety (so to speak) just mere feet away! But first, they had to get rid of their enemy.

_Hiss_ finally gained the upper hand by throwing all his weight into _Brun_, sending him over the side of the cab. Lee screamed, sure he had fallen to his death. But he clung tenaciously to the side while _Hiss_ leapt up onto the cables to leer down at them both, tail swishing like a pleased cat.

Lee didn't wait around for the creature to act. She hurled herself across the cart to help _Brun_ up and over the side. To her dismay he was bleeding freely from a myriad of wounds across his torso and legs from the lethal creature. Ignoring his hurts, _Brun_ glared up at _Hiss_, the corded muscle in his neck and back standing out in stark relief at his barely restrained anger. He looked like an absurd work of art, crafted from mottled marble in his stilled rage.

Gently, as only a soft female human could be between the two of these deadly foes, Lee slipped the blade they'd both crafted together in the cage, into _Brun's_ hand. With a gruff snarl, he glanced down at her with an unfathomable look before _Hiss_ sprang at them both with a victorious scream. The next series of events happened so fast that Lee found herself in the hallway, through the open doors under _Brun's_ considerable bulk.

As they both sat up slowly, the replay of events slipped through her tired mind like a slide show with near disbelief accompanying it. After _Hiss_ had leapt for them, _Brun_ had shoved her out of the way with a powerful arm, at the same time bringing the strike with the knife up and into the jet-black satin body hurtling his way. The honed blade slid into the soft juncture between hip and tail. A practiced move no one without plenty of skill and practice could have made.

_Hiss _had recoiled with a blood-curdling scree of pain and shoved away from him, back to the safety of the cables and chains above. _Brun_ had let him go, the knife in _Hiss'_ body. And his treacherous blood, that leaked sullenly around the melted and ruined blade, trekked down his glossy hide onto the cables with a eating burn. Starting with a grunt, _Brun_ thundered forward from the cab, grabbing Lee along the way with impromptu scoop, and flung them both out of the cab just as the acid burned enough for the weight of the cab to snap the weakened lines.

As they'd landed in a tangle over one another, Lee got a brief glimpse of _Hiss'_ startled scramble as he'd fallen with the cab and then…silence but for the ragged pant from _Brun_ above her.

Now here they were, both staring down into the darkened depths even as the resounding _BOOM_ from the heavy cab signaled it's reach of the bottom. Biting her bleeding lip, Lee glanced at her companion with a hopeful look.

"Do you think he's dead?" Her hope was dashed when he gave her a dubious look, even going so far to cross his arms across his welted and scratched chest.

_Yeah, right, _he was saying.

"Damn…just once I would like something to go our way."


	12. Chapter 12

_The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves._

_~Eric Hoffer_

Chapter Twelve

One Floor.

All that work, all that _struggle_ and they'd merely made it up another floor. Lee could have puked at the mounting impossibility of escaping. And it seemed as though their luck (pitiful as it was) had run out on the last floor. As soon as they left the hallway leading to the elevator shaft, they were greeted by blood. The color was all too red and sharp scented and everywhere.

The walls and floors splattered and bathed with drips and half flung droplets and ribbons that alternated as a colorful celebration to a shocking warning. A few errant drops fell from the ceiling to Lee's white coat and blossomed into carnations as she stared and stared.

_Brun_ was as impassive as ever but a thread of palpable excitement quickened his step as though he thrived on slaughter. Once again, Lee was uncomfortable next to him. She felt the vast gulf between their species open up and separate the tenuous bond. Shaking her head subtly at the thoughts, she turned from him and picked her way over the body parts strewn across the tiles.

_I didn't even know Phineas had androids…must have fried their logic circuits to be able to perform such a nasty task as using human guinea pigs…_

That should have told him then and there that what he was doing was wrong. But, she realized with a muted sort of wonder while staring at the twitching fingers of a android, Phineas knew _exactly_ what he was doing. He knew it was wrong. He didn't mind the taboos as long as the end met the means.

The distant silence was awakened by shots that echoed, distorted, down the halls to them. All of the doors were unlocked here. They'd been unlocked on the last floor too…Another fail safety or were the guards in a hurry and didn't have the time to lock them after their flight to the top?

Her mind was too tired to think of the what-if's or even to dread the next horrors that lurked just out into the halls. Guards that were armed to the teeth and most certainly not on her side, totally dedicated staff of a insane doctor, and his lab species running amuck. Just which one of those would end her trip to the doors?

She bared her teeth at the thought in a mock snarl. There was no one that was going to stop her from reaching the exit doors. Even if she got outside only to die from lingering wounds or a stray bullet, she would at least make it out of Phineas Hallquist's labs. As for _Brun…_

He was waiting at the end of the corridor, leaning against the doors and listening with care. By his side, his fingers twitched and curled like long spiders and Lee found the movements all too fascinating in her lethargic state of mind. His hand could easily hold both of her fists curled up neatly inside the cradle of his palm.

_I wonder what he would do if I tried to hold his hand?_

She shoved that preposterous thought away as she didn't want to touch him more than necessary. Not once had she ever been a very touch oriented person, even with Wyatt whom she felt an immediate attraction for. But _Brun's _hands seemed so full of strength, that her only circling thoughts could orient on how much she wanted to take that will and use it for her own. He didn't need so much, surely, and had plenty to spare.

The hallways, in their lovely off-white and gore-red, were empty of life. Lee didn't think for one minute they were safe on this level or even standing here in the deceptive peace. They were much more tired than Lee could have guessed and should have stopped to rest. _Brun_ was still bleeding from the claw marks and she wasn't sure, but that warm tickle down her back had to have been from _Hiss_'s claw marks.

The race to the top surely could have waited but they pressed on and made a fateful blunder. Around the corner and straight into the faces of a troop of harried soldiers who had seen better days. For an infinitesimal second Lee stared into the faces of men no older than she and registered their shock and dread that all too quickly morphed into anger at the sight of _Brun_.

All fear what they don't know and the primal urge to flee or fight rears strongly into worn thin wills. Lee knew, before they even raised their rifles, that they were going to fight. With a shrill squeal of panic, she dived into a open doorway, praying there were no more guards waiting for her inside the room. Outside the doorway, gunfire and _Brun's_ supremely _pissed off_ bellow rang through the hallway loud enough to wake the dead.

For all the build up and excitement the fight was over before Lee could stumble to her feet and make her shaking way to the door to peer out, so afraid she'd be shorn in two by a line of bullets from the enemy. But all she found was _Brun _surrounded by their dying bodies, his chest heaving as he twitched and winded down from the brawl.

Curiosity, that damned disease that it was, pulled her eyes to the soldiers to see how he'd dispatched them in such a short time. But the minute her eyes roved over the bleeding, _broken_, and gurgling bodies, she shuddered and flinched away from the sight. The alien being she called companion had proven time and again he was as much a monster as the hissing blackness that stalked them in the halls.

The hall returned to stillness as the last of breath and life left the bodies and Lee couldn't, wouldn't feel for them. They would have given her no leniency had she been alone and without a handy distraction to cut them down. But why, then, did a voice whimper in the back of her mind that she was helping aid the butchery of her own fellow man?

She felt sure his eyes would be on her, hidden behind that barrier and judging her reaction. But no, he wasn't even looking in her direction. He was moving to the door at the end of the hall that was sealed shut. She knew, before he could even touch the panel on it, that it would not open.

On the hip of a twitching body, the head smattered to pieces that she tried not to see, there was a hoop of pass keys that would open the doors. Typical for _Brun_ to overlook the obvious way to get out. Brute force wasn't going to open the door no matter how much anger he directed at it.

He impatiently gestured her to the door, even if the movement was slower than normal but God knows, he wouldn't show pain. _Get it open._ She almost moved to heed his request, but then stopped to shrewdly stare at the many marks on his chest, noting the strange blood that filled the hallway with a odd, alkaline smell.

_He should be dead…_she thought with mute horror. Really. His torso was riddled with shots and he acted like he had a minor pulled muscle the way he moved. Decision was made for her before she even spoke.

"Oh no, no, no. NO. You are getting those treated before we do anything!" He snorted and she was damn sure of the gesture this time. Male ego and all that. But his stance took on a subtle wariness at her tone. Apparently that feminine authority was not just a cultural thing.

"I don't care what you think. You're injured and you made me bandage myself! So get in there!" On impulse she pointed to the nearest room and waited.

_If I know him well enough, he'll be having a fit right about no-_

He stomped up to her and shook her like a doll. She squealed in pain as his fingers dug into scratches on her shoulders. But she didn't shrink back or cower. He kept glaring at her until he shoved her to the door and gestured once more.

Instead of opening the hall doors, she ducked to the side and opened the door to a private room and pointed at them. In only a slightly quivering tone, she commanded him, "I will swallow this pass key if you don't get in there. Then we'll be stuck here for who knows how long."

_Unless you rip me open to get it. _The level of anger that rolled off of him about made her ill. But, in for a penny, in for a pound. She threateningly held the slip of plastic to her mouth and parted her lips…

Snarling, _Brun_ finally tore himself away from the door, kicked a hole in the wall, then stomped to the room like a sulking child. Absurdly, Lee felt like locking him in and fleeing. Did she really want to go in there with him?

Wavering, she didn't have much choice when a dark hand shot out and grabbed her by the jacket and flung her into the room. Thankfully the throw was aimed at a lounge chair. She nearly tipped over it backwards with the force of the throw.

"I really wish you'd stop doing that…" she groaned into the fabric. Her hair hung in her face and she was nearly startled to see it speckled with his blood dried to a dull green. Belatedly she thought of the pass key and sat up, groping for it afraid he'd somehow gotten his hand on it when he'd flung her across the room. It was safely nestled in between the cushion of the chair and the arm rest. For now she left it there, hidden away from him.

_It's sad that I am too afraid to trust him with even this much. _For all that they relied on one another, they could barely be called comrades. She knew where her wariness bloomed but with _Brun_ she had to wonder if it had always been there from his very start.

Puffing air out of her cheeks, she slid out of the chair and rummaged in her tool belt for the makeshift first aid items. Without even looking to make sure he was paying attention, she flung gauze at him before going to check the bathroom to the room. Another office with a small half-bath to the side. There were no supplies she could filch for their uses and not even a shower to freshen up. Not that she had the time. She did shrug out of the jacket to get a better look at her wounds in the mirror. Just small cuts that oozed sluggishly and stung more than they rightly should. She left the jacket on the floor, tired of the cold blood rubbing against her skin.

Stepping out of the depressed hole of a bathroom, she almost ran into _Brun's_ outstretched hand, holding the gauze up to her nose. Startled, she flinched a step back before reaching for the item and gestured to the desk. She'd felt his weight, held at bay by his limbs, above her before in the hallway and wasn't sure the chair he'd flung her into would even hold his weight. A sturdy desk made of reinforced steel and decorative marble however, might have a chance.

They had another power play moment of grumbling from him and hard words from her with a dash of obscenities, before the darn beast finally sat on the edge of the desk and let Lee treat his wounds. Unfortunately, even seated he still towered over her and she was pretty sure the desk was going to give before long. Pulling out the flask that still had a small amount of alcohol inside, she started methodically ripping parts of her sleeves so she could dab at the strange blood of his.

"They don't make your kind in smaller sizes, do they?" The half jest was either ignored or over his head as he didn't even twitch. Being this close to him was…unnerving as always. She could get over the difference in size. Lee had never been the tallest of her own age group and was used to being out massed, if not in such extremes as this. But being this close to him just solidified how _foreign _he truly was to her. They were nothing alike. They didn't even bleed the same.

This close her eyes roved over his older wounds, anything to avoid looking at that stoic mask that hid something she didn't think she'd want to see. He healed faster than her, too. While her wounds were still oozing and stinging like fire, his were already scabbing up and were well into the first stages of closing. If they didn't heal the same, would treating his wounds like hers even help?

_Is he resilient to infections that we get? Can he even get gangrene? How can I ask this when I'm not even sure if he understands half of what I'm saying. _Shrugging to herself, she kept her lips closed and concentrated on just cleaning up his chest and arms that looked like they'd been ginsu-ed into submission.

However, the minute she touched the patch of cloth covered in the liquor from the flask to the first deep rut in his flesh, he twitched and grabbed her by the neck. His hand was so large he couldn't even wrap all of his fingers around her throat. The last two of the smallest digits pressed into her collar bone sharply. The first reaction to this was to scream, if she could get the air out. After jerking in two short breaths of air, she stared into the covered face that was watching her too closely not to be scrutinizing her actions.

"B-big…baby…" she croaked out and crossed her toes that she was doing the right thing by standing up for herself and not groveling. Though, if he was testing her, which it sort of felt like he was all the time in some way, then she was going to be more annoyed than threatened. He could apply his energy to something a bit more useful like trying to get along and not make her twitchier than usual.

With an ominous clicking he drew her closer to his mask, turning her face subtly from side to side like studying a strange rock. She squirmed when the action threatened to pull her off her toes. This was actually starting to hurt and that was where she drew the line with him.

_Why does it feel like I need a safety word whenever he's around??_ Rather than whimper in pain like some poor animal, she bit her lip and snarled her canine at him in a poor imitation of a threat. Posturing seemed the only choice when it came to this brute and half the time he laughed it off.

She wasn't surprised when he snorted and poked her _hard_ in the lower lip with a blunt thumb talon before abruptly dropping her. Squawking at the sharp sting of broken skin (as it was paper thin anyway from dehydration), she floundered into him on the desk where he'd pulled her forward and inadvertently pushed off of his crotch and inner thighs to find her balance.

The five-year-old in her that never grew up flailed in circles and screamed about alien cooties while the adult part of her mind was absolutely _mortified_ at having touched any male, especially this one! She wasn't even going to wait for any reaction from him. With a wordless yell, she flung the gauze at him and fled to the bathroom to hole away until the burning in her cheeks subsided. And she was not, _NOT_, going to think about what her hands had touched or how what any of that had felt like. As far as she was concerned he was a eunuch and that was final!

"Ok…ok, I can do this. Just a little bit more and I can make it." Even if the words sounded strong, her resolve threatened to break. She didn't feel what she was saying anymore than usual. Just because they were three floors from the surface didn't mean there would be anything good waiting for them. And thinking about it made her feel heavier and the aches worse.

With a small sigh, she splashed water on her face and toweled off the perspiration, blood and dried tears with a hand-stitched towel hanging beside the vanity mirror. Studying the tidy stitches of embroidered flowers she had a twinge of regret for marring the pristine cloth with the filth she'd accumulated. If she'd only known what beauty was there before, she wouldn't have ruined it.

Outside the bathroom, _Brun _was waiting by the door with his arms crossed and back to her. For a moment she had a chance to study him while his unnerving attention wasn't making her innards quell. Seems like she could never get enough of looking when he was so full of strange details.

The armor extended and overlaid in scales down his spine which only made sense, she mused. If you were going into battle, you wanted to protect something as important as that. If their biology was even remotely similar, then their spinal cord was as fragile as their own.

_Then again, he's probably got two spinal columns and discs of adamantine. _Still, he looked fairly normal-ish from the back. If one ignored his skin coloration, height, head, and feet. Speaking of, her eyes widened as she studied twin dewclaws on either side of his feet and what looked like spurs on the heel. Hard to say with the metal sandals covered in tiny spikes. It was almost…cute and yet ugly at the same time.

There was no bandage twined around his arms or chest that she could see but she did note _her_ flask hanging from his hip along with the other assortment of items he had collected. Somehow or another she'd get that back from him. Right now, she didn't want her hands anywhere near his…middle area. Her fingers twitched at the thought and phantom memory was his-_NO, NO, NO._

"Well, let's go…" she said with less enthusiasm than one going to their own execution. The chair was as she'd left it but the key card was missing. Frowning, she sucked on her lower lip and grimaced at the tang of blood from the small hole he'd punched in her skin. Where had that stupid card gotten to?

Something light smacked the back of her head and she started with a small sound of surprise. _And there is my gauze…_The glare she directed at him over her shoulder was forgotten when she saw the plastic card held securely in his fingers. She didn't have to see his face to feel the smug rolling off of him like pheromones.

Sarcastic words were poised on her tongue to smart off at him for being so much better than her, when a realization froze her tongue to the roof of her mouth. He had waited on her…He could have left her long ago while she was hiding in the bathroom but here he was, waiting by the door. Again, she was at a loss for words or what to do with this new revelation. It didn't look like he was going to leave her anytime soon.

With a mute nod she followed him out of the room to the door. He slid the card into the slot and stepped back as the door slid open into the wall slot. Like all the halls on this floor and the rest below, they were all off white and as cheerful as a funeral. This corridor was deceptively quiet and free of any signs of violence. Lee discreetly stepped around _Brun_, eager to get on the move and away from her muddling thoughts. The sooner she was free of this place, the sooner the two of them could be free of one another.

This side of the door there were no evidence of blood or even any sign of life. They seemed to have wandered into a different wing from the offices and rooms dedicated to scientists and soldiers. There was even a tiny chapel that Lee passed by with a bewildered glance at the miniscule narthex. Not many practiced religion of any types and to see something going back to the newly born pagan days in Phineas' complex was just startling and so out of place.

It became apparent that they'd found a highly secured wing of some sorts for this floor. That in itself wasn't astonishing. Each floor seemed to have some hidden secret locked away. Some of the doors that expanded left and right, seemingly in mazes or corridors, couldn't be opened by the key they had and eventually they found themselves stuck in a wing with no where to go. Progress halted unless they wanted to go back and retrace their steps.

Lee was completely against the idea of going anywhere back to where those black things could be lurking. It had been tranquil, sterile and so _quiet_ here that she was loathe to leave this sanctuary even if they were making no progress. Beside her, _Brun_ was in his customary stoicism as he inspected the doors and small room they stood in. Just another boring room in a long line of boring rooms and halls that had no color or life.

"The only way we can go is…" she trailed off as her eyes followed the wall to a vent above her head. _If I can climb through a vent down below…what's to stop me from doing so here?_

"_Brun_…"

Of course he didn't respond. It wasn't his name. It was a title she gave him and, she realized with a pang in her stomach, that was exactly what Hallquist had done to her by calling her Leah. She'd hated that.

Turning those grey eyes to him, she sadly frowned at the gap between them. Not only had she held him separate from her with mistrust and fear, but she'd also been seeing him as something almost below her. He was a separate species, but she had a feeling he was vastly older, and (thought childishly violent at times) wiser than she. And really, hadn't he been patient for all her slowing him down? She owed him much respect that she'd overlooked.

"I don't know your name…You know mine but I've never bothered to ask for yours." For a moment she didn't think he'd understood her. He just stared at her blankly, towering over her small form and blocking out the light over head. Then he…said something she would never, _ever_ be able to pronounce. There was clicking, a trill, some kind of almost mechanical noise and all of it went over her head and out of her ears. She just stared at him blankly until he heaved a long-suffering sigh and flicked her forehead hard enough to make her stumble backwards.

"Ow! Forget I asked!" She sulked and rubbed at the red spot that was trying to develop into a small knot. An idea formed in her head and she muttered, "Call me whatever you want, and I'll keep calling you _Brun._"

She didn't particularly like the calculating head tilt and slightly forward tilt of his shoulders as he regarded her. Like he was thinking of just the perfect title in which to call her. Finally, nodding to himself almost imperceptivity, he pointed at her and said…something short and sharp. Whatever it was, it could never be pronounced by a human tongue without turning it inside out and she had a feeling it was mocking in some way.

_I have a feeling I'd be better saddled with the name Phineas gave me…_ Rolling her eyes, she turned and pointed at the vent and before she could ask for assistance, he was jerking her up by the back of her shirt and ripping the vent off like he was going to stuff her in there like a weasel in a tube tunnel.

She braced her hands outside the vent on the sides of the wall and squealed distressingly like a little girl. Her strength was nothing to his but he let her hold him at bay for the moment, a small trill almost under his breath giving away his mirth. One baleful glance at him and she wormed her way into the shaft with the help of his hand on her derriere.

From then out it was another claustrophobic crawl in the dark as she prayed none of those creeping creatures would find their way to her. She didn't have the room to reach under her to the belt and pull out the flask and lighter. Hell, she couldn't even reach a screw driver or a socket wrench. There was nothing for it, she wouldn't be able to fret too much and keep going.

The tunnel kept running the length of the floor but she stopped at the first vent that lay in her path. Chipping fingernails with a curse, she pried the vent out of it's bracket and dropped it down into the room below. She was too tired to try at stealth and her awkward crawling would have alerted her presence to a blind man. Following the vent, she wormed her way through the small opening, shifting and wedging her shoulders through the sharp corners until gravity, quite suddenly, pulled her free. The fall was so abrupt that Lee only had time to gasp as she hurdled to the ground with a sharp pain to her spine and lay there, curled up like a dead bug, at the feet of a woman.

Amelia Amahapatra was scrawled neatly across her badge and Lee found herself mentally stuck at the sheer beauty of the stately woman. How could anyone working, willingly, for Hallquist be so vivacious was beyond her. Even her accent was pitched and wrapped around her form like an exotic shawl.

"You should not be here!"

_Funny, you shouldn't be either. _Wincing, Lee sat up and flinched away when the woman actually bent over to help her to her feet. She expected a sharp jab of a needle, not a soothing swathe of cool fingers over her back. The soft touch felt…nearly nice in light of all the scrapes, bumps, and bruises she'd collected along the way. More than anything, it was a _human_ touch.

"What are you talking about? The place is under attack, lady. What are _you_ doing here?" Only when she was on her feet, did Lee look around the room and notice the reason for all the security. This entire wing was a very large, advanced medical bay. There were more cubby holes, cabinets, bunks, and paraphernalia here then all of the entire floors she'd been on.

Amelia, green eyes locked on Lee's form like a protective den mother, drew herself up to her diminutive height and gestured sharply to the room, "This is my medbay. You have no clearance to be here. The security clearance will not even admit employees of Doctor Hallquist."

Lee sneered at the way she pronounced that madman's name. She practically purred his praise through the syllables. Another zealot in a long line of them here. Again, she found herself wondering what it was he did that drew them to him.

"You should leave like the rest. Why'd they leave you here? Where are the guards?" Her stomach tightened in apprehension at the thought of them sneaking up behind _Brun_ and cutting him down while he was cornered.

Amelia frowned, her dark complexion created the illusion of shadows perpetually falling over her eyes. "I have a patient here. He cannot be moved and the soldiers were only getting in my way."

The imperious manner in which she claimed the entire wing as her own, and that she had the clout to kick the men out actually impressed Lee. Obviously Amelia wasn't one to be pushed around and, so far, she hadn't proven herself to be bat-shit crazy like everyone else under Hallquist's thumb. Though one never knew…

"I don't see a patient. Look, Miss-"

"Amelia. If you are going to barge into my medbay, you will have the decency to call me by my name while you take sanctuary."

"Right. _Amelia_." Lee's frown tightened and she just decided to be as blunt as a unsharpened pencil. "This compound is fucked and is crawling with those black things. You have to get out of here."

_Why do I even care? She could die by Hiss' claws and I'd not bat an eye. She's just another one of his minions. _

But was she really? The more Lee studied her, the more her conviction and hate wavered. Amelia was a petite woman that stood nearly as short as Lee and dressed so unlike anyone else here in the building. She breathed color and was decked out from head to toes in subtle touches of life. A bronze hair clip pinned glossy locks behind an ear and created the illusion of a raven's wing, soft down feathers, cascading over her shoulder. She wore makeup and even the ugly lab coat didn't mar the lovely shirt and skirt she wore…in fact…her entire outfit was vaguely familiar…

The doctor's large eyes blinked once, then twice as she in turn studied Lee. With a small grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, she said, "You have been in my room."

Staring at the other woman's tiny feet, Lee could now see why she would never have fit into her shoes. While Lee wore Amelia's clothing, in turn Amelia _wore_ her clothing and made them lovely. Standing in front of her, for the first time Lee felt ashamed of her appearance.

"I…I just borrowed them…" Oh she hated that inadequate feeling of shame and self loathing. It's not like this doctor had ever had to steal someone else's clothes because she'd been forced to. And again Amelia surprised her.

"Keep them. I can make more." She turned, the effort fluid and efficient, and walked further into the medbay to the darker recesses. Lee, forgetting about _Brun_, followed her in sheer curiosity and for the sake of staying near the one human being that didn't seem to want to dissect her.

"I know who you are. You are _his_ project. There was much talk about you. The potential, the sheer obsession. We thought him mad for his enthusiasm for one subject. And then the specimens came along and that was the end of it." The brusque way Amelia summed up Lee and Phineas' rivalry was chilling and quite apt. After the creatures had come along, he'd had passing interest in her. Already he'd begun to waver when she'd not broken for him. Kept to their devices, he would have used her up and chucked her aside for a new obsession with better results.

Lee kept quiet, not trusting any response to her words. What could she say? She dully studied the berth that Amelia brought them to before realizing there was a person in the bed. Shifting, she stepped back afraid of imposing of all the ridiculous things.

It was the twist of hair on the crown of his head that ticked her memory over like a stalled car. Even as she stepped away, his name formed on her tongue and she breathed out in a startled murmur. He was dead and yet, here he was, sleeping on a berth. She wanted to scream.

"Gently. He's still healing." Amelia smoothed the covers over his shoulders and was nearly obvious to Lee's growing mingled emotions of horror and surprise. Like a marionette, Lee forced herself forward to look at the face she saw in her dreams and more often in her nightmares.

"Haskel…"

A bandage covered his eyes but she remembered how the glasses he wore would slide down over the bridge of his nose and rest crookedly on his narrow face. Cara had thought him so attractive but for all her boldness, had always been too timid to confess any wantings for him. Even the basic physical ones.

"What's wrong with his eyes?" Without waiting for an explanation, Lee jerked the bandage off of his face already dreading any butchery that lay underneath. Even fearing the worse, she wasn't ready for what she received. With a mewl, Haskel squirmed at the intrusive light and opened his eyes to stare unseeing at Lee.

There were no pupils left. Or there could have been but for the scramble of his eyes. The iris was bleached of all of their color and had a pearly sheen that reflected and warped any scant light over the surface. But it was his pupils that made Lee's throat constrict. The dark was marked with odd, miniscule grids and were warped out of shape. They didn't dilate in the scant light. They didn't appear to do anything but mar the eyes like warped black holes.

Lee couldn't take her own eyes from his face until a cry bubbled up and broke past her frozen mouth. She would have grabbed Haskel, had Amelia not blocked her path with a firm frown and tipped the girl backwards and onto her butt with a flat palmed shove to the sternum. Instead of venting her anger on the doctor, Lee vented her anger verbally on who she knew was really to blame.

"That _son of a bitch! _I'll kill him! I'll butcher his face!" She grabbed her hair and pulled hard, focusing on the sting to ground her and make the world stop tipping because all she could think about was Haskel's eyes and that animal noise of pain he'd made when she'd touched him. He'd survived longer than she and what had they been doing to him while she'd been waiting in that padded cell and complaining?

"You'll do no such thing. Phineas would have cured him given the time." The sun in Amelia's voice darkened like the pass of clouds overhead as she passionately defended that demon. Steady hands slid the bandages back into place as she turned her back on Lee.

"Phineas is a creep and a butcher. I would know! And you would too if you would just look!"

"Hallquist is a good man! He cares too much and that is his downfall." The words, even in the thick accent of spice and sun, was ugly to Lee's ears.

"He is not a good man. He's a monster! Look at what he's done to Haskel. _Look at his eyes, lady._" She lunged forward and pried the bandages off to show her the proof even if the doctor had seen that same damage hundreds of times over. The scarred and opalescent irises that were once such a lovely shade of brown. Now they were nearly white like everything else here. With a sob she jerked her hand away and said with a throat thick with tears, "Phineas takes all the soul out of life! He took his color!"

_I'm speaking madness. It's finally happened. I'm crazy. I'm crazy! He took the color and left him that ugly white and his eyes were so bright! He'll take my color too. Even my hair is fading to dullness. I'll be nothing before I leave!_

In her maddened thoughts that flittered in her skull like frenzied bats, she grabbed onto the image of _Brun_ and all his exotic glory. He hadn't begun to fade or turn a lighter shade of anything. He was always a rich brown or green or olive in the light. Even his talons were charcoal black and really, he was too bold in this place. He stuck out like a crack in the wall that let cold air into a hot room.

A soft hand on her shoulder stopped her from shaking and she stared at the smooth fingers that weren't _Brun's_. The skin was nearly as olive as his but tinged with a rich bronze and entirely human and soft. Amelia stood in front of her and watched her with a kind face that Lee wanted to hate but couldn't. There wasn't a trace of patronizing malice in her. The doctor generally meant what she said and her care was as delicate as she was.

"He isn't always successful and for that, I wish there were something I could do. Haskel survived the treatment with loss. The scar damage may be removed on a later day, who knows? You do not give up on anything so easily. I do not." Amelia's lips stretched in a garnet smile that made crinkles appear in the corners of her eyelids.

Lee wanted to shake that resolve even if it felt warm and easy to latch onto after _Brun's_ cold comfort. "How can you be so sure? Look around us. We're surrounded by those things that are going to tear us apart. Do you even know where your precious doctor is?"

The grand doctor chose not to reply; moving away from her to coo and fret over Haskel as she re-covered his eyes once more with the cloth and smoothed a few wayward strands out of his face. Like the brute, she too stuck out in this building with it's faceless guards and blank walls. But she didn't mar, she was too bright and seemed rooted firmly like a flower, freshening up the room.

"Where is the Specimen?"

"He has a name," Lee grit out before remembering that she didn't even know his real name. Just one she'd made up. Turning to her with an arched, sculpted eyebrow, Amelia waited for her to continue.

After it became obvious she wasn't going to go on, Amelia mused aloud, "I did not realize it could speak English, much less any language. It seemed so ragged and uncivilized when they first brought it in. But looking at the array of equipment that it kept with it, I see now I was wrong to assume so wrongly."

"He…"

"Hm?"

"It's a he…definitely a he." She turned to hide her blush. Not like it wasn't blatantly obvious that he was a male!

"I never assume. Some species are hermaphroditic." Amelia went back to her fussing while Lee froze with that thought. But no, he couldn't be! Could he? "I…we have to get out of here."

"And move him? No, no. He has to rest. The lights will be absolute agony on his eyes even with the bandages. You cannot." Amelia placed a hand on Haskel as if to hold him down if Lee so much as twitched toward him.

"We can't leave him or you here. Those things will get in here. It's only a matter of time!" If she had to, she'd knock the lady out to take Haskel. Even if she did like the woman alright enough, she wasn't going to jeopardize her friend's life anymore and leave him to the mercy of those vile creatures of the shadows. Thinking of one of the smaller ones on his face made the bile rise in her throat.

"It is a foolish venture to take him out into harms way." But Amelia's tone was thoughtful, if not regretful. Lee couldn't say what was passing behind those obsidian eyes as the woman's face was impassive as ever.

"I'm taking him out. I don't care if you come with me…but I'd rather you did."

The corners of Amelia's mouth twitched as she regarded Lee levelly until finally sighing with resignation. "You keep him alive and I won't regret this."

_How can you berate me to keep him alive when Phineas was slowly killing him?_ Lee began to rethink the sanity of this woman but at the moment, another ally wasn't going to be shucked aside. Especially when she had the means to get them out quickly without having to hack into computers or crawling through any more vents. Then she thought of her violent companion and how he was going to take two new members to their…whatever they were.

"…you may regret this anyway." She winced at the resounding bang from the end of the wing that could only be a impatient _Brun_ who was going to beat down the door to get to her.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Holy cow, did this take me forever to get out! I am so sorry, patient readers. (And you'd have to be by now.) Life caught up and drowned me with it's deaths, illnesses, holidays, and such. But I'm back now and really want to wrap this story up before the NEW PREDATOR MOVIE COMES OUT. BOOYAH, IT BETTER NOT SUCK. **

_They went forth to battle, but they always fell._

_ ~James Macpherson _

Chapter Thirteen

Just outside the door was an alien being who always seemed preternaturally angry at the entire universe. Both women studied him through the one way glass cut stylishly into the doors and stalled and…stalled. At least, Lee stalled.

Amelia wanted to open the door and "meet the Specimen" at the risk of life and limb. Lee had no safety precautions for her companion. She barely knew how to act around him and felt for sure that Amelia would make a horrible faux pa and end up bleeding or, worse yet, dead. And for Haskel's sake, the doctor needed to live.

"What are we waiting for? This tediousness will not stop time. I am opening the doors now if you please." Amelia reached for the keypad to press the switch but, once again, Lee stopped her fingers from pressing the button.

"Wait…just…you have to be careful around him. He's so _violent._"

"Oh yes, I suppose he should be. Any culture he has seems to be steeped in almost primitive acts of violence and ritual slaughter." At Lee's bewildered look, she continued with a slight shrug, "There are crude runes and glyphs on the equipment he had in his possession."

"…he's going to want those back." Lee had an idea forming. If Amelia could just give him the items, maybe he would lose some of that hostility and stick around with them. _I'm afraid he's going to leave me…and I don't want that. Not yet. I can't make it without him. I can't make it to the very end and I'm close. We're close. _"You could return them to him…"

"Your idea bears much insight. Should I survive this encounter, I will do as you wish." Red lips curled in a charming smirk as she pressed the button and opened the door. Lee hoped to whatever deity was listening that Amelia was just joking.

Both women stood their ground as the doors slid open with a muted hiss of slick mechanisms and stared into the mask of _Brun_ who stopped mid-stride at the sight of another woman. A menacing growl rumbled low in his humongous chest that Lee could actually _feel_. His whole posture was building toward outright hatred as he drew himself up taller and curled his fists tighter into cannon ball sized knots.

Standing just as miniscule as Lee, Amelia drew herself regally as any queen and…kneeled down into a totally submissive and subservient gesture that made Lee's mouth hang open in surprise. She wasn't the only one struck stupid for the moment by the gesture. _Brun_ froze like a pantheon statue, seeming to deflate in height and anger as he just watched Amelia with as much bewilderment as Lee. Slowly his head swiveled to give her a blank, always masked, stare.

Mouth snapping shut, Lee pointed at Amelia and just blurted out, "Healer." On hindsight, after the word left her mouth, she felt like an idiot. Like he'd understand the word and it didn't even have to do with the subservience being displayed towards him.

The moment was broken by Amelia's low murmur of greetings to him. _Brun_ just snorted but the ire seemed to be gone. It was then Lee realized that this subservience was alright with him. Perfectly peachy keen, in fact. Maybe all along this is how he viewed her kind; humans were totally beneath him. This display, that kept Amelia alive, made Lee's stomach churn in sour anxiety.

_I can't take much more of this debasing even if he's drinking it up. _

"Get up." She said with nearly numb lips. Where did the exhaustion keep coming from? She wanted to curl up in a dark room away from these two and cease thinking and fretting. And if Amelia did not get up on her own, she'd yank her up by her shirt or her beautiful hair.

Brusquely, the doctor started to brush her hands and knees off only to pause mid-kneel and stare at Lee's feet. She gave a noise very nearly to a growl and grabbed at Lee's ankle with a quick jab. Lee was completely taken aback by the move and not used to anyone's touch for so long that she merely squawked and pin-wheeled her arms trying to keep her balance.

"What are you doing?!"

"Your feet! They're in such a shape! How can you keep walking on them like this? Sit! Now. We are not going anywhere without treatment. The _both_ of you!" How a woman nearly as tiny as she was could be so…so _threatening_ was impossible to fathom. _Brun_ for all his warrior bravado, flinched and stepped away from the two women with a distinct feel of distaste.

The rest of the evening was lost in a mind-numbing shuffle of Lee getting her wounds bandaged (in some cases stitched) and _Brun _exploring the rooms at will. Amelia practically burned with curiosity for the alien and watched him from under her long eyelashes. Lee was too tired to decide if that was creepy or not. She kept nodding off and slumping lower on the cot as the doctor washed her feet in warm water and bandaged them in soft linen. It was nearly religious, the act and the comfort that came from the gentle, yet firm administrations. The last sight she had was of _Brun_ bent over Haskel's sleeping form and the firm thought that he wouldn't hurt him before her eyelids closed and darkness drowned her mind.

/ - / - /

_She drowned in a sea of viscous liquid, too thick to be water and too warm to be right. Dizziness swept in as her lungs burned and her body caught fire as an underwater current tugged at her body and pulled her deeper into the liquid state. Pain flared up her arm and created it's own rhythm in the symphony of pain from her limbs and chest. Her mind ached and thoughts clawed to be free like the screams caught in her throat. She didn't know where or when or what. She only knew the pain and the sinking and the claustrophobic feel pressing in and tangling her-_

Lee clawed her way out of the too warm cover, drenched in sweat and burning up. Fever cooked her thoughts into a soupy mess that had her hands trembling and groping near-blindly for anything in sight, unsure of what she was even reaching for. An IV flushing fluids into her hand made her wince and stare in near horror. She should never have trusted that doctor! It was the tests, all over again!

With a mewl of terror, she ripped the needle from her hand, relishing the sting that drove some of the fogginess away. Her legs buckled when she rolled off the cot and she slumped to her knees with a mute cry of fear and confusion. What had happened to her??

"_B-Brun_…" Her lips trembled around the name, barely carrying the sound into the secluded, dim room. Shuddering and imagining the worse, she hoarsely called out his name again, in a near panic. The figure that strolled around the corner was not the comrade she called for. Amelia was so startled to see her, that she nearly dropped the needle she carried.

"Lee, what are you doing out of bed!"

Hissing in a mix of pain, panic and near fury at the medic who had _betrayed_ her, Lee tried to back away from the cot but her legs were still asleep or just too cramped to try and let her run. She fell back against the frame and onto the floor with a small cry and blindly lashed out at the woman.

"No! Get _away_!"

"Lee, stop this." The woman grabbed her tightly around the shoulders and fought to keep her grip as Lee struggled. "You're running a fever! I moved you to this room to cool down and flush you with antibiotics."

The grapple between the two women was brought to an end by _Brun's _appearance out of no where. Lee truly didn't see him until he was right behind Amelia and grabbing the woman by the thick hank of her hair and tugging her off of Lee. The doctor struggled for a moment, but in the grasp of such a beast, didn't fight too hard and simply stared at Lee, face strained with tears of pain in the crook of her eyes.

"I promised, Lee. I _promised you._"

_She…the needle…she was going to…_ With a growl, _Brun_ raised his fist above his head and prepared to bash Amelia's lovely features into ruin. Lee couldn't trust any of them in this facility but…Amelia was the first that had tried and seen her as more than just a prisoner or some science project. She had kept Haskel safe.

"Wait!" She crawled into the woman's lap and clung to her, afraid that the language barrier wouldn't save the doc before it was too late. Afraid of so many things including this woman's could be treachery. But she couldn't just let her die.

The moment stretched out too long before _Brun_ untangled his hand from her hair with a disgruntled grumble and pulled the two apart like they were dolls to be man-handled. After giving Lee a thorough once over, chittering to himself the entire time, he gave one last look at Amelia before stomping out of the small room.

"Your friend is very…protective." Amelia rubbed her scalp with one hand, slender fingers disappearing in the thick curtain of black. In the other hand she still had the needle.

Lee crawled for the bed, panting raggedly with exertion. "Life for a life…" She sprawled on the soft surface and the blanket, arms shaking with adrenaline and the fever. "What happened to me, doc? I was fine before…"

Amelia gave a delicate snort as she climbed to her feet. "Hardly. You were sick enough when you got here you just didn't admit it. Fatigue? Body aches? Headaches? Any of those vital warnings you ignored, I'm sure."

"Kind of hard to pay attention when I'm trying not to die."

"You were trying to escape. Not to die. There is a difference as I'm sure you know." She heard the woman approach her side and sit on the edge of the cot. Cool fingers smoothed over her cheek and Lee had to fight the urge to lean into the touch. Amelia murmured, "The fever claimed you after you passed out. I put an IV in, which I see you have removed. I was going to administer some antibiotics when you woke and had your…moment."

"I thought you were going to inject me like the rest did…" The words made their lazy way out of her mouth as Lee kept her eyes closed and her cheek pressed against the pillow. When Amelia stiffened at her words, she cracked open one eye to watch her. "What?"

"You said…they injected you, yes?" She looked away for a moment, cradling the needle in her lap and face lost from it's serenity to hard truth. "Hallquist has given you something. You were a test subject. I have no way of knowing what he'd have injected into your body without extensive tests that could take days."

In truth, Lee wasn't surprised or broken by the realization. She had known they'd done something to her in one of those many trips to the labs. Cold needles and hands reaching and prodding her. It was only a matter of time before they'd given her something at Phineas' behest. And she wasn't surprised that Amelia did not apologize on his behalf. Why should she be sorry? That was what the grand doctor did, he broke things to make even better miracles.

Lucky Lee.

"Oh, is that all?" Her voice was as flat as the floor and grated like rocks.

"You seem to be taking this well. Can I inject you with the cocktail or would you rather I didn't?" She looked back over at Lee and her eyes were so dark and tempting to trust. Like pools of thick oil; so many colors mixing to black.

Lee shrugged and closed her eyes, wanting to sleep her life away. The pointed sting of the needle in her arm didn't even phase her as she tottered between consciousness and the black edge of dreamland. And still her mouth ran away with her thoughts.

"Haskell ok?"

"Of course. Your companion even looked at him briefly. He is as disinterested as ever by anything not directly involving himself." Amelia's voice had a tranquil quality to it that brought a small smile to Lee's chapped lips. She sounded amused and motherly. The sick pang of missing her own mother, made the small smile slip from Lee's lips.

"He's a brute." Lee muttered into the warmed cotton under her cheek. The material was growing damp from her fever sweat and made falling completely asleep difficult.

"He is what he is." Amelia moved away into the deep of the room, away from Lee's muddled senses until she returned with a glass of water that the sick woman gulped down. The cold was abrasive and painful on her sore throat and Lee found that swallowing to be a chore.

"When can we leave, doc?" This time she settled onto her back against the pillows.

Amelia regarded her with that unnerving intensity that only _Brun_ could rival. "That is dependent on you, is it not? As soon as you are ready, we will get Haskell onto his feet and lead him away. I have…no weaponry here in the medbay but the cutting tools. A laser scalpel could be of some use."

The thought of a laser scalpel made Lee stupidly happy. Much better than a wonky wrench or the makeshift other items she carried. Speaking of, she looked around briefly for her tool belt, not finding it nearby.

Knowingly, Amelia watched her and smiled, "The tools are with the Specimen. Along with his recovered items."

"What did he have?" Curiosity and the antibiotics were burning away the fog of lethargy.

"Such curiosities! We had no way of knowing how the few items worked. I was right in my estimation of a crude medical kit. His preparations leave much to be desired and I have never been so content to have sound proof walls. I only regret I was not allowed to get a sample of whatever compound he used or what antibiotic he may have administered to himself." Where Lee burned with curiosity, Amelia was supernova with the same trait. Every fiber of her being seemed to intensify at the sheer puzzle that was _Brun_.

_What's so special about him anyway? And what the hell is she talking about? _Lee was beginning to think the fever gave her permanent brain damage or that the doc really chose to speak in confusing array of words. Either way, it made the headache in her skull pound away.

"Doc…what does that even mean?"

"He has healed himself and what's more he has recovered a very useful skill, I would imagine." She seemed dubious and distracted on this one thing and that made Lee squint at her in the dim room. Amelia shook her head and focused just past her, perhaps in thought.

"And?" Lee's mood was only getting worse by the sudden coyness. Why couldn't the doc just spit it out? She seemed so wordy before.

"Camouflage." Amelia pointed beside Lee.

When she turned she saw…nothing but the dim room. Before Lee could ask what the hell she was pointing at, _Brun_ materialized right in her face like reality just dropped a curtain of nothing. One minute gone, next minute hello giant, oddly shaped abs three inches from her face. With a squawk, Lee jerked away from him and nearly toppled into Amelia's lap (again) before the urge to flee stopped driving the impulses from her brain to her body.

_How-how-how how-_

The record skipping of her thoughts stopped at the familiar, grating sound of _Brun_ laughing at her. She doubted Amelia even recognized that weird noise as mirth. But it grated the surprise right out of her. The bastard!

"So great, he's Houdini." She straightened up with a sharp tug of her blankets.

"Illusion does have much to do with the hiding, yes. It's all bending lights and a reflecting shield I would imagine. I never got to study the details before my other skills were needed." Amelia's matter of fact rambling had Lee pondering just what the lady could do. She was a doctor. Apparently she had training in science…

Her eyes strayed from the doc to watch _Brun_ slink away. Two steps and he simply vanished as if a invisible cloak from a fable was thrown over him. But, as she knew where to look, she could catch the small bend in light that just barely outlined his hulking figure as he left the room. Once through the doors she lost him completely. Now, why did that cause a strange pang in her stomach?

"Why's he so restless?" Lee hadn't meant to break the silence but once the words were out, she looked to Amelia for the answers. It seemed like this lady had the answers to most of the questions burning in her mind.

"I do not know. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say he is impatient and wanting to get out. Like a caged animal waiting for its meal."

"…like a what?" Lee cocked her head to the side in puzzlement and nearly wanted to swoon at the dizzy feeling that followed the movement.

"It is just a theory…but…look at his physique. From my calculations and casual surveys, I have come to the belief he is a carnivore living and sustaining himself on flesh. It is the only type of sustenance to keep up with that body and metabolism. But he has hasn't ate since he's arrived and that was…well, I do believe days prior. At least."

"You mean…he's _starving_ and he is still in better shape than any officer in this joint?" Lee's mind reeled with that bit of news. Sure, they were different but this was…was…

"Amazing, isn't it?" Amelia's voice brimmed with awe and profound pleasure. "If I had known what a find was waiting in the cold excesses of space, I would not have spent my life in advanced medicines and science."

"Can't we just give him something to eat?"

"I have offered everything that is stocked in our pantry and he refuses it all. Whether out of pride or sheer incompatible tastes, I can't say." She shrugged lightly, the hollow of her clavicle made into a shallow pool of shadows.

Food was truly the last thing on Lee's mind. She had no appetite and just had the burning desire (and fever) to get out, to get Haskell out. Sucking in a breath, she shoved the blankets off of her legs and took the arduous task of standing on her own. When Amelia stood to help her, she rudely waved her away with a look of disdain. She was fine on her own!

"Gonna go see Haskell."

"…be kind, please. He is very weak."

_She asks me to be kind when Phineas did this to him…what insanity is this?_ But she didn't have the strength to argue semantics with anyone, much less a confusing woman who straddled both sides of right and wrong. So she left the doc sitting on the cot and felt her way through the dark room into an equally dark bay where Haskell's still form rested.

He was much the same as before, ruffled hair and lanky body. She bit down on the small voice that incessantly raged that it wasn't Wyatt laying there. What selfishness she had devolved into…

"Haskell…" She reached out to brush her fingers over his forehead, skirting away from the bandages but his voice, croaky from disuse, stopped her actions like ice flow lodging a river.

"Cara is dead…because of you…" She had been wrong. His throat wasn't choked with time, it was shut with grief and anger…at her. All for her.

"I'm…_sorry_, Haskell. I didn't want-"

"No, you _did_ want this. You led us here. This is your fault, Lee." She was horrified and transfixed as a sallow tear slipped under the bandage, stained with who knows what kind of chemicals and impurities from his eyes.

"I'm…sorry…so sorry…" She backed away, throat squeezing so tight she couldn't swallow the disbelief and shock. But how could she have expected him to feel anything for her but hatred? Cara was gone and she had led them after Phineas with righteous compunction.

_We agreed…all four of us agreed…we'd stay the course together…_

Blindly she found her way to a corner and slid down the wall, arms folded on her lap and she hid her face and the tears that were slipping from the slits of her eyes. She didn't want to cry or think. Especially to remember what they had all agreed upon. But memories, like a flood, were flowing freely like a flood gate cracked by one last blow.

_Huddled around the table, the five of them sat on the ship and hovered over the map. Ruthie sat propped up on the edge of the table to make up for her diminutive height, ignoring teases from Ruthie about her stature. _

"_I want to put you on a shelf or in a glass case!" _

"_Would you focus, for a minute. Cripes, we're going to get no where…" _

_Lee smiled at Wyatt. Always so serious when he could easily tease them all into smiling. "Relax, it'll be easy to get in. The staff is all new and he always employs everyone so young. He didn't even see us at the last rally."_

"_Yeah, but the word has got out. We name ourselves once and then we're branded as these freedom fighters." Haskell polished his glasses on his shirt, nervously moving his fingers into the fabric._

"_We are freedom fighters, in a sense." Ruthie tapped her finger on the blueprint of the building. "We're going to free whoever is caught in there. Isn't that the plan? Fight if we have to?" _

_As always, the petite woman got stares all the way around for her bold words spoken in such a crisp, smoky voice. She was brimming with authority for one so small and easily overlooked. _

"_Well…that's the plan." Lee grinned broadly at them all, feeling…for once like she had a family that understood her. Brothers and sisters in arms…a lover…Her gaze strayed to Wyatt and she found herself staring into those cornflower blue eyes, a blush warming her cheeks. _

"_Oh great, here they go again…" Cara teased, her hand snaking out to hook through Haskell's long fingers. _

"_I think it's cute. They're too stubborn to be with anyone else." Haskell had laughed at the indignant look on both of their faces._

A sharp rap on the head startled her out of her funk. Twitching with a strangled cry, Lee looked up into _Brun's_ burnished metal visage and stared at the large hand outstretched to help her up. The offer was so unlike him that she slipped her hand into his without thinking of the action and gasped at the startling feel of his strange flesh on her heated skin.

"Let's get out of here." She murmured after he pulled her up with such ease. He nodded once before dropping her hand and stalking for the door to wait. At least she hoped he was going to wait.

Amelia, as it turned out, was ready to go while Lee was having her…moment. She'd gotten Haskell onto his feet with a small pack on his back and her own, and she'd even managed to find a pair of shoes for Lee. The soft tennis shoes made no noise on the floor and Lee bounced in place to test their traction. Excellent enough on the cold floors. She was ready to go.

The fever still lingered like a hazy cloud, but some vitality had returned as her cuts, gouges, and bruises had been treated. The small respite had stirred up some life in her even if Haskell's words had killed another half. She would get him out. She owed him that much. This was no longer about her.

They stood beside the door, all four of them, such a mismatched crew, while Amelia explained to them the layout of the floor. She held onto Haskell's arm with a firm grip that kept the blinded man from stumbling into anything. The sure way he relied on her guidance spoke volumes of how long he'd been in her care.

"I can unlock all of the doors in this wing with this over ride code, but it will open _all_ of them. I fear our sanctuary will be no more the minute the defenses are down. We will have to make haste to the stairs. The elevators have been disabled for the top floors and the doors are sealed shut. Two hundred yards to the end of this floor, then we climb to the second floor. Are you ready?"

Without waiting for mutual confirmations, Amelia deftly slipped the card reader through the slot, punched in the code and the entire atmosphere changed. The lights slipped off and emergency beacons switched on giving the hallways and rooms a psychotic orange glow. Lee felt her heart rate speed up like a rabbits at the change in lighting. A sense of urgency and danger nipped at her heels. They had to move now.

And move they did. _Brun_ disappeared as soon as he stepped out of the door, the vapor like trail of him leading them until he flickered out of sight. The only way Lee knew he was around was the phantom feel of movement nearby and the occasional click by her ear. She thought she would be weirded out by the gesture, but was only comforted to have him nearby. He wasn't leaving her after all.

Amelia led Haskell with calm steps that left hardly a sound in the hallways. Their paths were through passageways and labs all empty and haunted by their silent passage through. When an hour slipped by and no monsters materialized to get them, Lee broke the silence by sidling up to Amelia's side (the farthest from Haskell) and leaned in to whisper to her.

"What is it about Phineas that you are hung up on?" She had to know what it was about that wretch that had so ensnared such a woman like this one and tried not to notice how much Haskell flinched from her nearness. Or how badly that hurt.

"I admire a man who sacrifices himself totally to save a whole race." Amelia's words slammed into Lee's mind with enough force to bring a sneer to her face, once again.

"Oh sure, a butcher. You don't see _Brun_ ripping us apart to fashion a _band-aid_ out of us."

"The Specimen?" Lee twitched at the name Amelia seemed to have firmly rooted in her brain. "Don't be so sure, my Lee. The officers sent samples of bone taken from his armaments…ah…decorations I assume. Ceremonial most certainly. For testing, you see? I found them to be human origins dating back well over our time. They're practically fossils."

"…fossils?"

"Simply stunning. His kind must live an awfully long time and have ran into ours before. Naturally."

_Naturally?? She's telling me that he's been around forever and naturally he's-But-how?!_

Lee searched the room they happened to be trekking through, trying to find _Brun._ He was out of sight but not out of mind as her thoughts tumbled over this new facet about him and his kind. And Amelia just accepted all of this in stride and didn't seem bothered to fear for their safety from such a creature.

"This doesn't bother you?"

Amelia looked at her, clearly amused. "Why would it bother me? He is what he is. You are what you are. We're you planning to blow this facility up, Lee?"

Lee looked away in shame. The explosives were such a long ago memory, that she'd fairly well forgotten the plan; the foolish, idiotic plan. With a knowing nod, Amelia continued, eyes turned back to their surroundings, voice quiet.

"You would have destroyed my medic bay and everyone inside if your plan had gone to fruition. Does that bother me? No. It just is. I am saddened by the loss of life from anyone, but all the gnashing of teeth will not stop what is."

Shamed into silence, Lee lagged back to the other side of the room and away from the two that stirred such hard feelings in her. At least with _Brun_ he only incited annoyance and fear in equal doses. With Haskell and Amelia, Lee tended to feel less sure about herself as a human or anything worth living at all.

Speaking of, the brute brushed by her shoulder as they both squeezed through a door, making her stumble a step. She huffed and, without thinking of the action or the relaxed friendly gesture, batted playfully at the vague outline of him. When her hand made contact with his arm, she froze and jerked away like she'd stung herself. In retaliation, large fingers ghosted over her cheek and pinched her ear hard enough to earn a squeal of outrage.

"I didn't hurt you!" Sullenly, she rubbed at her abused lobe while Amelia led Haskell behind them.

"It will not be easy escaping. There are strict orders regarding the sight and potential capture of you two." Amelia's words brushed the irritation out of Lee as _Brun_ materialized beside her.

"Have him recapture us? No way! I'd rather be dead." Lee's insides quelled at the thought of returning to the cell and the dark. Out here, it wasn't much better, but she wasn't slowly dying like a dog. She stalked off down the hall towards a set of double doors. Behind her, Amelia's tone didn't waver as she kept up.

"Phineas didn't specify alive or dead. He just wants the claim of your bodies."

The silence from those words stretched between the four of them until Lee murmured, "…why are you helping us?"

"I believe that higher forces place us in situations we were meant to be in. You have sought my aid, I will lend it. Phineas sought my services, I gave them."

Lee's mind boggled at the simple logic. Simply insane logic. There was a fault in that pattern she would have to explore when she got the chance. Like now.

"So what if you were asked by the guards _and_ us for help? Then you'd have to-" Lee yelped when _Brun_, fed up with all the yammering, pinched her arm.

"That is amazing. Does he understand us? Or especially you?" Amelia glanced in her direction with those large, curious eyes.

"Only when it's convenient," Lee sourly griped, rubbing the bruised skin.

"He seems to have a fondness for picking on you."

Lee didn't like the teasing quality in Amelia's thick voice or what she was implying. Making a face to no one in particular, she chose not to reply and stepped away from her in the wide hallway to a small water fountain. Her lips were still dry and her throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper.

After she had drank her fill, she offered the same to Amelia and Haskell, inadvertently reaching out to her former friend. As her hand strayed to Haskell's, he jerked away from her with a hiss and seethed, "Do not touch me!" She shrank back from him with the temerity of a mouse and continued after _Brun_, her cheeks burning with shame.

It seemed like they'd been traveling for days, but an hour had passed at most. Their furtive race through the dark was mostly unobstructed by as they neared their destination of the stairs, the feel in the air started to change. There was a wrongness that tugged at Lee's senses. Something she couldn't quite place. Like they were walking under a guillotine blade with a frayed rope holding it in place. She was thankful when Amelia's words once again broke the strained silence with a small whisper, like she too was feeling the crushing weight above and had to impart her words before it was too late.

"I have a daughter."

Then, Lee saw the tenuous line, the tarnished thread that connected Amelia to the good doctor. Threaded with promises kept and delivered. "What did she _have_?"

Amelia's smile grew as she watched Lee across the dim way, "Clever Lee. You are so very bright, you know."

Lee snorted. She wasn't bright. She was a fool for going against the monster who had so many on his side. She was taking on a whole religion.

"She had a muscular disorder. Deep space creates so many new illnesses that we cannot often keep up."

"But Phineas could." The words were flat and stale. Lee sighed deeply and would have said more but found that she didn't have the strength or the will to use her voice. She just wanted a few more moments of comfortable silence with her newfound comrades: A strange medic, a friend who hated her, and a alien being that hated everything. But her heart started to categorize them into something better: a new friend, an old promise, and life itself with claws and strength to defend itself.

In the midst of so much company, Lee was starting to forget to be afraid. Caught up in old pangs of bitterness and betrayal, she let the fear slip it's leash and disappear. And in this monster rich world, that was her greatest mistake to date.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: ARUGH I am so sorry it took this long to get the next chapter out. I battled everything from depression to artist block on the way to getting this thing written. But, good news! Only one more chapter left and it's done! ...well it's good news to me, anyway. Also, how much did the new Pred movie rock?**

_In anguish we uplift, a new unhallowed song: The race is to the swift; the battle to the strong. _

_ ~John Davidson _

Chapter Fourteen

_Lee's hands pressed tightly over the ragged wound, fingertips dipping into the shredded tissue and muscle underneath as her fingers were not large enough to staunch the blood flow. Tears slid down her cheeks from the corners of her eyes, taking the dirt and sweat with them as she wept in frustration. Life was slipping past with the flow of precious blood. The control room was filled with the taint of copper from the growing puddle under her legs, making a shallow, viscous tacky mess around her. _

_She was alone and the stillness of the room was unreal and screamingly loud compared to the chaos before. Her eyes, like flint stones chipped from use, wildly rolled between her lids looking for some clemency from this fate. _

The halls held a smell that warned them first. The sterile paths, filled with dull paint and hard tile was dull to the senses and lulled them until Lee started to catch a certain tang in the air that settled on her tongue before she took full note. Sharp, acrid, bitter and wet; nothing that belonged and all alien.

Her heart started to lodge into her throat even before _Brun_ looked to her in another unfathomable glance. She knew before they ran into the messier…constructs on the walls and ceiling, that the monsters were here. The Xeno things. Her hand tightened around the makeshift weapon, a small torch cutter that Amelia had given her, and her palms soon grew clammy so that her grip grew trickier. She could easily see herself dropping the tool while a monster, made of shade, slammed into her and dragged her off into the dark. She wished, again, for the lights to be restored instead of the emergency beacons.

Amelia and Haskell didn't have to be warned as they stepped through the organic mess dripping from the surrounding walls. They stayed together and kept quiet in the middle. Unfortunately, Lee was stuck in the back while _Brun_ took the front and led them. Faith in her ability by him was either touching (or perhaps he didn't care all that much and pride demanded he go before the damn humans) but Lee doubted her skills mightily. Especially as she bit back a gag from the mucus covered floor, walls, and ceiling. It felt like they were walking down a monsters gullet.

Then…there was chaos. They walls themselves were moving as they were attacked. It was sudden and ugly the way the creatures moved like water streamlined through their bodies. They made violence an art in motion, like a horse running across a field, these things flowed down the wall and slipped nearly soundlessly toward them until they could feel the sibilant hissing across their skin.

Lee struck the torch into life and shoved it into the very hands that were reaching for her. The skeletal fingers halted their advance as the monster screeched and writhed away, afraid of the burn and the light. After that one clear moment of stark reality, every minute afterward was a blur of struggle and survival. There could have been five or three of the Xenomorphs in the hallway. She couldn't tell with the running and lashing out at random.

Amelia hugged Haskell tightly to her and used her own laser cutter, severing fingers and part of a tail here and there. Acid blood hissed as it splashed the floor and burned the soles of their shoes as they skipped over it, always moving and trying to keep up with the juggernaut, _Brun_. He slammed through the smaller aliens, taking them off their feet as they wailed in distress and Lee came to a startling revelation that they were still babies. Still so young and violent. They knew not how to fight but only to hunt with instinct and _Brun_ surpassed their skills with efficiency and relish at the combat.

The group ran through the maze of halls and through rooms too many to count. And somewhere along the mad dash and nonstop struggle to stay in one piece, Lee found herself alone…truly alone. She stopped and turned, expecting to be assaulted by those creatures but there were no more…there was nothing. Her comrades were gone. She turned in circles, panicking, and looking for anyone and anything. It was too quiet to be good and even the noise of combat faded.

_How did I lose them? _But she couldn't remember where she may have taken the wrong turn, she was last in line and hadn't been watching them close enough. There were so many paths to lead in the sprawling building. She'd merely chose the doors without anything blocking her way with a set of snapping claws and grabbing hands. And now…here she was, alone in a corridor without a direction to go in.

_Up…always go up. That's easy to remember, right? Wherever they are…they have to step on their own…I have to go on my own until we get out…_

As a rule of thumb, at the end of each end of the building there were sets of stairs leading up. She followed the hazy exit signs that blinked in the dim corridor and twitched at every imagined sound. How long could she go like this until her heart gave away from the fear? How long could she go unharmed and where had the things gotten to?

In the silence, she started to notice just how loud her footsteps were in the shoes no matter how hard she tried to step lightly. They were nearly ruined from the splashes of alien blood she'd tried to avoid. Frowning but feeling there was not another choice, she slipped off the footwear and left them behind. Her tread was quieter and footing was less trickier. Though if she stepped on the blood barefoot…

_Don't think about that right now. _

Always forward she crept, footsteps so cautious and whisper quiet. The pads under her toes were chilled from the cold but it didn't hinder her any. If anything, it made her steps quicker. The only sound was the beat of her heart, thick through her veins and thundering in her ears.

She made it to the stairwell without incident and ascended slowly. Her breath was held so tightly behind her closed lips. One couldn't realize how many stairs there were until they had to ascend them in utter quiet, afraid of what was lurking around the next bend. Was it a monster with sharp edges, teeth, and black? Or was it a soldier armed with weapons and madness most right?

Climbing up was tiring, and not just physically. She was tired of waiting to be attacked and her thread bare patience was fraying like a aged hemp cord. When she reached the next set of doors she found that they had been on the third floor and she'd made it to the second. Finally! One more floor and they'd be alright. They'd get out…

But even as her foot stepped on the next step that would lead her up and out, she paused and stared at the door to the useless second floor. It was just another death trap waiting for her. Another level to sneak through that could contain all sorts of vile things and those nasty creatures. But there was something here…_what was it?_

Something like urgency pushed her away from the steps and to the door. Her hand shook as she grasped the level and pushed the door open to the dark hallway. The emergency lights and layout made this wing look just like the one before it and the familiar was not a boon. It made a sickly hollow bloom in her gut like a corrosive ulcer. So why did Lee find it so necessary to waste her time on this floor?

_Something they said…what was it?_ She stood, poised in the doorway and burned with fever and thought. _…something for Brun…the soldier said there was-_

Her eyes flew wide as she remembered the drift of conversation that reached her in the air duct. The soldiers had said they'd had the specimen's things on the second floor. If she remembered this floor correctly from the stupid blueprints Haskell had dug them up, then she knew this floor was security. So what was it the alien had that was so vital to keep locked tight?

_I can't…leave without finding out…_

Into the hall she crept until her strides grew firm and assured. There was still a trembling down her backbone and into her hands that made her fingers curl and rub against her clammy palms. She had no confidence that she was even doing the right thing, but thoughts of _Brun_ kept some instilled bravery in her body enough to push her forward into the darkened corridors.

While she walked, she tried not to think of anything and only hear, scent, see what was to be seen. But her tired mind kept creeping back to Haskell and Wyatt. If Wyatt was alive would he have thought the same of her as did her former friend? Would he blame her? Would any of them blame her if they were still here?

_Why couldn't Phineas have just killed me? What did I do to earn such attention? I was nothing to him but a pesky gnat…_ And yet he'd obsessed over her and tried to tame her to his will. Like trying to break a headstrong filly.

What would it have been like if she had broken and just accepted his plans? Would she be by his side? Was that what the mad man had wanted from her? To be by his side, in his bed? Lee could never figure out what he wanted from her. At times he had looked at her like nothing so much as a interesting insect. And then…sometimes she caught him looking at her with such…_want_ that her mouth would run dry with fear and she'd shrink away from him all the more. Afraid of what that thing burning in him had craved.

Her train of thought was derailed and turned into a fiery mental explosion as a hand wrapped around the back of her neck and halted her movement so firmly that her throat locked in a silent scream. She lunged away, trying to escape but was reeled back firmly against a large chest. Only when she felt the familiar contours of his body (_when the hell had they grown so familiar?_ ) did she still with a melt of relief.

_Brun_ held her against his front by the nape of her neck. His large hand was wrapped around her neck and his talons dug into the skin in a itching, maddening manner. She would have tried to free herself but he directed her head forward so she could see just what the hell he was trying to keep her from.

Down the hall, in the murk of the shadows, movement skittered near the emergency lights. The orange glow canted off the slick shine of the chitin armor and the regal headcrest that looked like barbed tangles. Lee could feel the absolute terror in her grow as she found the creature to be so much bigger than the other of its kind…and it was limping. In the location she knew it had been stabbed by a blade made of debris from a camera…

_The fall didn't kill it…_She shook against _Brun_. This was too close to the thing and she had no special cloaking that could save her from its sight.

Wordlessly, not even a growl, _Brun_ pulled her from the hallway into a open room where they huddled behind a desk of dark monitors. They waited quietly until the monster in the hall moved on, in its endless hunt for things Lee couldn't fathom. Blood? Meat? What could it possibly crave?

_Brun_ deemed it safe enough to make noise by slowly standing and chittering to himself and watched her with the alertness of a hawk. His sharp gaze pretty much said, "do I have to keep an eye on you always?" She had to admit, getting separated had been very stupid on her part even if it was an accident. She had to resist the urge to hug him, relief so great that he was here. But that action was about as appealing as going out to say hello to _Hiss._

"Your stuff is here. On this floor." Even if they were momentarily alone, she still rasped out the words to him. She couldn't bring it in herself to be louder than she was. Fear held a tight control over her actions and closed her throat. She remembered the way his large hand had totally engulfed her neck and shivered.

For once, in the whole span of time she had known him (which felt like years but was less time than a blink of an eye, really) _Brun_ quietly accepted what she was saying and stepped back allowing her to lead through the door. She could have cried in relief that she didn't have to fight him on this one thing. That he didn't want to go barging upstairs where there were surely the entirety of the compound loading up on their ships to escape. The likelihood that they'd be happy to see this pair was absolutely wretched.

Lee had a feeling his items were in the armory. Which, if Amelia was telling the truth, were now unlocked from the over ride. Likely it'd be empty anyway. If they were all bailing from the compound, they wouldn't leave anything behind. The sinking feeling that his items were gone flared painfully like a cramp in her gut. If this was for nothing, she was going to feel so stupid in light of everything.

The fact that they got to the room without incident and quickly raised a warning flag in her mind. There was no way anything went this well for her. The rooms on this floor seemed to be, for the most part, deserted and quiet. There weren't even any of those skittery, floor hugging nasty creatures that had been in the lower levels. _Hiss_, there was no sign of.

The armory was indeed, a deserted mess. Gear had been ransacked and removed in such haste that ammunition and tools littered the floor. She moaned lowly to herself in disappointment. What had been the point of coming here? His stuff was gone.

Just as she was about to turn around and leave the stupid locker room, _Brun_ trilled, the sound loud and nearly delightful in the resonant room. She stared at him like he'd grown another head but his attention was on a few strange items on a table that was nearly over turned. It leaned against the wall like a drunken sailor binging from the woes of the sea.

"…I guess they forgot to take your stuff…" Lee's tone was mildly disbelieving. Did their luck just go that well? Really? While _Brun_ fawned over his whatevers, Lee picked through the room and looked for anything that could help her. All the weapon's racks were empty and all the ammunition was removed. There was nothing for her.

_Unless…_she frowned and moved to the desk outside the locker room that was the security point for all items checked in and out of the armory. Sitting in the chair, which was a great relief to her tired legs, she leaned against the desk and felt underneath. Her fingers ran over cool metal until, ah, there it was…In a holster strapped to the underside of the desk was a pistol. As advanced as technology grew, humans didn't lose their long held habits.

She grinned triumphantly as she held the weapon up in the light and checked the chambers. A full clip nearly brought tears to her eyes. She couldn't say what caliber the thing was, but she'd bet it'd stop a man in his tracks.

_I'm saving one for you, Phineas…_

Three red dots bloomed on her chest like plump berries. The hum of machinery jerked her head up to find _Brun_ watching her, weapon on his shoulder and primed to fire. Even though the thing had her heart dead center with its aim, she didn't fear he'd kill her. But she did give him the finger in return.

While _Brun_ snorted his amusement at her, she noted the new additions to his body. On his wrist was another device, a wristlet of some time. When he saw her studying the panel, he flexed his arm and out popped a blade nearly as long as her legs. She jumped in the chair at the noise and bashed her knees on the underside. Even the flare of pain didn't distract from studying those deadly blades. They were almost pretty in the scant light but oh, so deadly.

When he returned the blades back into their collapsed housing, Lee let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding. Even if he was on her side, she still found him so overwhelming for the sheer violence that seethed from him like invisible waves of energy. She just wanted to live. He, now more than ever and armed to the teeth, was _spoiling_ for a fight.

_Great…he can go first._ Lee was not ashamed to admit she was going to let the behemoth lead the way before her. He was better armed and more than adequate to survive what was to come.

"Where's Amelia and Haskell?" she asked just to give them something to do. Sitting here was getting to her. And charging up onto the last floor was feeling like a suicide mission. Somewhere there lurked _Hiss_ and Phineas had to be up there…It was all very much growing to a boiling point that made her want to curl up and retch.

_Brun_ gestured for her to follow and she gladly moved with him, keeping behind his solid form that stayed uncloaked for her. In the gloom she would have lost him easily. They fled the second floor back the way they'd came to the stairwell. Time was nipping at both of their heels and they knew it.

Up the stairs and around the corners to the final door that was open and waiting for them. She expected soldiers and gun fire. She didn't expect silence and …light. Why the hell did this floor have power? In a monitoring station, right near the stairwell she found the reasons why.

Amelia stood behind a monitor, hands running over the dials as she caressed commands into the computer. Her plump, red mouth curved into a delighted smile to see her. Lee felt jittery in her bones and tummy at the warm greeting. When was the last time anyone had been that delighted for her?

"Lee! You are alive. When you disappeared we thought you dead. Well, I did. The Specimen went to find you. I stayed here to find a way out. The backup generator is still working, a shock no? But they have to have some way to fuel the ships with energy." The petite doctor ran over and tugged Lee away from _Brun_. "This is the way out but as you can see…"

The screen they studied showed the hanger that was teeming with just about every soldier form the compound. In the background, ships were being loaded by civilians and doctors alike. There was no sign of Phineas, but Lee had a feeling he was there somewhere. If they had to go through that many soldiers to find a ship…

"…we can't get out…" Lee's voice was broken and tired. Here they were at the end and there was no way to get one ship for themselves. They were trapped on this stupid planet with these creatures left to feed on them.

"Oh no, no. There is another ship, a private one we can use." Amahapatra's smile was a gypsy rose in a dessert, beautiful and mysterious. "I placed Haskell there for safe keeping. He's sedated and asleep there. You and I can get there if you wish. But it is close to the hangar, and there are guards nearby. The only reason they allowed me was for the fact you were not with me. I cannot sneak you or your companion aboard without their notice. I am sorry."

Lee wanted to scream. The woman handed her salvation and then snatched it away all in one speech. She wanted to shake the damn female and ask her why she'd even mentioned it or waited around for them! She could have been gone with Haskell! And instead, her voice asked something else entirely.

"Where is Phineas?"

The medic's smile melted away as she looked at the monitor again. Without saying a word, she pointed to one of the ships and studied Lee in a careful, measured manner. "What will you do, Lee? Sacrifice your freedom to go after him?"

Honestly, Lee didn't know what she was going to do. She had just asked to make sure he was still around and beyond that she had no plan. She just wanted to go home, return to her parents. So she studied the monitor for a long time and then turned to face _Brun_.

"Can you clear a path to the small ship? To Haskell?" She had no doubt that he could and would kill the guards with ease. With a near cocky growl, _Brun_ cracked his fingers and strode out of the room and away. His cloaking covered him from their sights and he was lost in the hallway even in the light.

Lee blinked at how easy that had been. She hadn't expected him to comply and both she and Amelia turned eagerly to the monitor to wait and watch. Lee's stomach churned in anxiety over what she had just done. She'd asked him to go kill those guards so they could leave. What a horrid thing she had asked and he'd gleefully jumped at the chance like he'd been waiting for an excuse.

At the first bloom of violence, an explosion that tore one of the guards _in half_, Lee turned from the monitor and covered her mouth. She just did hold onto the nearly empty contents of her stomach even as Amelia gasped in utter wonder.

"What weapons he possesses." The dark eyes of the doc stayed on the screen as Lee wandered away from her to the end of the room. They should be charging away, to the ship while _Brun_ dispatched the guards, but both women seemed rooted in the spot. Lee, nearly sick to her stomach and so sick of death. Amelia just enraptured by what she was seeing from another being. Both were not paying attention to their surroundings in the least…

Lee had closed her eyes for only a moment, the pistol still gripped tightly in her hands like a rosary chain. Her fingers had even traced over the foreign surface, counting the nodes and ridges like they were holy beads. It was Amelia's hand on her shoulder that snapped her out of her trance. She looked up into the doctor's lovely eyes and at the beautiful red smile before the black shape behind that face rose up like a ghost.

There wasn't even enough time to scream as _Hiss' _tail slammed into and _through_ Amelia's rib cage with enough force to paint Lee's face red with a coppery spray. Only when the twitching doctor, whimpering and choking like an unbelievably grisly marionette act, was hoisted off of her feet did Lee truly scream. She lurched away from the two and lost her balance on the chair, falling onto her back even as she raised the pistol in two shaking hands to point at the thing.

_Hiss_ neatly flicked his tail and sent Amelia across the room and rolling on the floor, leaving a widening smear of blood behind her. Gore trailed from the blades of his tail as he lashed the weapon around in excitement, sending small droplets in curving arcs to paint the white red. His attention was wholly on Lee as she raised the weapon and squeezed off a shot. It went wide and flicked and furrowed across his elongated brow, leaving a seeping furrow behind. A mere scratch.

When he leapt for her, Lee shoved the nearest chair in his way so that he landed on it, not her. The metal and plastic was crushed under the Xeno's weight, as pieces of the chair went everywhere. And still, Lee tried to shoot the thing that was so close she could smell and hear its rattled breathing. The bullets slammed home on the softer parts of its chitin skin. More than half of the round deflected off the denser armor and ricocheted into the wall.

Lee realized she was wailing and crying in a distracted manner. A minor thing compared to this nightmare being that had its hand on her ankles and was pulling her to it with a strong grip that felt like a skeleton's hand returned from the grave. She writhed like a wild cat, but there was no purchase on the floor and it was so much larger than she, that fighting was nearly a waste of energy. Only when it was perched over her, elongated head twisting to the side to study her closely, mouth open and rancid drool leaking onto her face and on her mouth did she calm down long enough to stop fighting.

She stared death in the face, felt the caress of its breath on her face and the needle sharp talons of its, _his_, feet and hands digging into her shoulders in a viselike grip. Lee was going to die right here, so close to getting away. So close to getting Haskell away. In the final moment, she remembered the gun in her hand and held it under her chin, finger squeezing the trigger.

_Hiss_ lunged forward to snap at her face, take her features off and steal her breath. Before her finger could tighten enough to release the primer to the bullet, she tilted the gun so that it pointed _into_ the mouth of the creature rushing to end her and pulled the trigger. This close the shot deafened her ears, but not nearly as much as the screeching of the Xeno. It writhed back off of her, grabbing at his mouth and throat. She hoped he was dying, but she wouldn't hold her breath… Before she could pull off another shot, the creature turned tail and fled into a nearby vent, punching through the metal covering and rattling away in a noisy retreat.

She lay there stunned by the attack and pain, gasping for breath and sobbing quietly. Across the room Amelia's crumple form lay still in a widening pool of blood. Lee crawled to her, finding the strength in her legs gone for the moment. She could barely hold her weight up on shaking arms as she moved through the blood, following the trail, to the doctor's side.

When she rolled her over, Lee had to bite a screaming sob back as she found the ragged hole from the creature's tail. The hole was filled with blood and worst of all, the doctor was suffocating on the pool of blood and shredded lung tissue. Her glossy eyes stared at Lee, the doc's brows knit in pain and confusion.

With a keening wail, Lee pulled the woman into her lap and cradled her to her chest, weeping over what she couldn't help. She wasn't a doctor and this was beyond any help. Her hand pressed fitfully over the wound and brushed across exposed organs. The rasping rattle of breath, that choked out flecks of blood on her normally beautiful face, was all Amelia could offer in return. Weakly the doctor guided Lee's hand to her chest, over her shirt to a hard form under the material. Then the strength was gone and so was the woman it fled from.

For the longest moments Lee held the corpse and wept until her throat was raw and her eyes burned red. Her hand fisted over the metal necklace before she plucked it from the death woman and held it to her face to look. It was a simple locket with a picture of a young woman inside. She didn't have to wonder who's daughter that was. Another legacy was passed on even as the blood around Lee grew chilled and her crying gradually stopped to be filled with a empty burden of duty.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Merry Christmas fans! I give you the end! **

_You always admire what you really don't understand._

_- Blaise Pascal _

Chapter Fifteen

Lee forced her way past the door of the room like a blood splattered explosion. Her clothes stuck tacky to her body as she fled down the hall towards the hangar, suddenly not so afraid of what awaited her on the other side of the bay doors. If anything to escape the horror of Amelia's lifeless body that stared into oblivion and _Hiss_ lurking all around like a ill omen.

The bay doors opened to a room quiet in its chaos. Civilians, once doctors and proud students, lay crumpled like used tools. Their own filth and death over powered her own dirty presence as she crept through the room. Bile rose in her throat; hot and stinging. She didn't have a direct plan. Just one foot in front of the other and not go back. Never go back.

The soldiers and guards were curiously missing, their weapons pooled with their blood, arranged on the floor like forgotten toys for the fallen tin soldiers. Smears of their own fluid led off to the lower recesses of the hangar, under the ships and into the vents leading away from the room. She shuddered, not having to imagine what dragged the men, kicking and screaming, off to their deaths. This room had been one long awaited death trap. The humans hadn't made it to the ships quick enough.

_Haskell!_ Lee ran, her feet slapping against the cold ground and splashing through cooled blood here and there, sliding dangerously and threatening her balance. Every fiber of her being was focused on finding the ship of Amelia's to find her friend. If she failed him too…what good was she?

_Close to the hanger. She said the ship was close to the hanger and this is the end of the…_

Her thoughts ground to a stop as she found a smaller ship at the tail end of the room. The docking ramp on the end was open and extended to the floor. Fear fluttered darkly around her heart, drumming through her mind with thoughts of Haskell's lifeless body waiting for her inside. Was she too late?

Her sticky feet skidded across the hard floor as she rounded the corner of the ship and leapt onto the ramp. Darkness yawned for her in the hold and she plunged from the light into the shadows before caution took heed. Before she could stop herself, a flash of bright powder burn and the echoing shot thundering inside the small ship's interior deafened and flung her off the ramp and onto the floor. Her own pistol clattered out of her hand the minute she hit the ground. Gasping in shock, she stared at the ceiling so far above her head and tried to mentally recoil from the agony flaring like a burning coal fire through her shoulder and chest.

_Shot…I…someone…shot me…_ The frantic beat of her heart pushed the blood out of her wound and saturated the shirt in a warm spread. She tried lifting her arm, either of them, but the agony went beyond that to some primitive part that could only lay in mortal terror. Footsteps echoed hollowly down the ramp as her attacker crept to her. Phineas frowned over her body and toed her weapon away from her jerking hand.

"Such a waste." He was mumbling above her. His voice was once so articulate and demanded attention in dictation and passion. Now he was quiet and distilled as he rambled to himself. The Phineas she knew didn't ramble.

He stooped over and grabbed a fist full of her hair and dragged her toward another set of doors nearby. The prickling pain of her arm fought with the tearing sensation of her scalp as she squirmed and cried out, unable to gain her feet or get out of his hold. It was too much pain! She couldn't even breathe!

Over a door way he dragged her and she thought the agony was burning through her body and making her sweat until he let go and her head thumped down on the hard floor. The room itself was hot, extremely so and there was a humming sound. When she looked around, hazily through squinting, tear filled eyes, she found her answer.

Every base worth its salt had a large furnace to handle the waste and garbage from every day life. Phineas' compound generated a good deal of medical waste that could only be destroyed in a safe manner. Mainly fire hot enough to turn bone to ash, metal to liquid. The compound had a state of the art furnace built as cheaply as possible. There were loading stations for the rubbage to be sorted and there was a pit in the middle of the room that was deep enough to fit a small ship in. At the bottom, fire licked in anticipation of its next meal. He'd dragged her to the adjacent room next to the hanger for one sole purpose. You destroyed evidence in a furnace.

"No…" She squirmed and rolled onto her stomach, screaming at the raw ache in her shoulder and chest. It pitted in her belly and for a moment her cries were cut off by bile creeping up the back of her throat in sympathy for her trauma. Lee didn't want to be burned alive and forgotten.

His foot slammed down on her back and pushed her into the floor, forcing the air from her lungs until she croaked out a thin cry. When she stilled her movements he only just relented. She knew he was cruel, but this hardness from him was terrifying and new.

"You have a choice, my dear. And I'd focus more than that small brain of yours ever could. I can throw you into the furnace and forget about you once and for all. Burn your sins to ash and leave you to dust the planet. Or you can finally relent and come with me. Learn the error of your ways and let me open your eyes." His voice was sharp as a blade and through her lashes she peeked up at him to see his eyes as hard as rock, every line around his eyes a sharp crevice. He meant what he was saying. "I'll even spare that failure in the ship."

_So Haskell is still alive! _Her hope flared like a small candle in the gloom.

"Choose. Your life or _his_." His fingers twisted in her hair again and jerked her head up to see who he was talking about.

"No…." Her voice caught, already raw and strained and broke into a near sob.

_Brun…he invincible…no…nooo…_

She closed her eyes tightly and refused to see her guardian, her companion for the time, strung up in twisted chains, thick around his chest and binding him. His glowing blood dripped sluggishly down his chest and legs, making a trail that dropped into the awaiting furnace below. He was infallible…this couldn't be right! He never lost! How could this be happening?

"Say the word and he goes. You can go free to live with yourself. Refuse me again…and so help me, Leah…you'll join him in that fire and I'll throw that reject from the ship in after I'm done purging my life from your existence." The ferocity of his words were flecked by his spittle as he mumbled against her cheek. His voice reeked of metal and madness.

Lee's eyes flickered open; she no longer pretended to not cry. She couldn't make this decision. Haskell or _Brun_. It wasn't fair! She couldn't choose who was to live or die! What right did she have?

"Phineas…p-please…" She screamed when he twisted the roots of her hair and pushed the gun muzzle into her throat.

"The next words out of that mouth had better be an answer."

Her cries awakened a sluggish _Brun_. His head barely tilted in her direction, but she knew he was wake, she could tell by the tension in his body. He practically charged the air around him with a feral feel that she had taken for granted. And there was the answer she was dreading…she couldn't kill him. This creature who had barely been in her life long enough for her not to even know his name…she couldn't consign to death.

_I'm so sorry, Haskell…_

"Me…Not him. Me…" Her body shook with sobs as she condemned her fate and that of her friends. Again. She took their fate knowingly in her hands and crushed the fragile life. All so the monster could live.

Phineas straightened and dragged her toward the rim of the furnace, the lid recessed under the very floors. His fingernails tightened hard enough on her scalp to make welted grooves against her skull. The pain was dull compared to everything else that hurt. At least she couldn't feel the pain in her heart.

The yawning mouth of furnace lay before them, her toes to the edge as he leaned her over the pit. _Brun_ struggled against his bindings and likely roared disproval but she couldn't hear him at the moment. The whole world felt muted and distorted like a thick dream covering reality.

_Why am I giving up? _

_I'm tired…I don't want to fight anymore…_

_That's a reason? You never give up! You said you wouldn't die here! Wake up! Get up! Try! Do something! Take the bastard with you! Come on, Lee!_

The voice in her head no longer sounded like her own, but Wyatt's. A voice from the grave come to haunt her. As she stared down into the flames below, the heat curling causing her hair to curl at her nape and around her face, she reflected that his body was likely chucked in here like trash…his ashes scattered outside on the breeze with Ruthie and countless other nameless people. And she was about to join them.

"Phineas." Some strength in her voice made him turn to her, pausing for a critical moment that was enough for her. Her teeth slammed into his face, biting and digging in deep. His voice was shrill and echoed in the room loud enough to drown out _Brun's_ ferocious noise.

She clung like a stubborn dog, jaw working as she literally _chewed_ at his face, fingernails digging into his neck to hold her place. When he forced her off with a rough shove, a part of his ruined face broke free in her mouth and she spat the flesh back in his face. Blood blinded them both as they teetered on the edge of the rim and Lee lost her footing. Hands wrapped around the doctor, they both fell off the side and into the hot air billowing up from below.

Lee had one startling moment of clarity. She was going to die and the pain was held at bay by the revelation. But she wasn't going to die alone. That, more than anything, was enough to keep fear away until she reached the bottom and burned alive.

Except she never did. Phineas plunged past her, still screaming like a banshee to the inferno below. Two powerful legs swung out and caught her around her middle like a vice, stopping her with a jerk that awakened every known injury in her body. This time she did throw up, just luckily not on either of them. Above her,_ Brun_ made a disgusted noise but didn't loosen his hold.

"I'm sorry…too much excitement…" She weakly smiled up at his face, afraid she was going to faint or puke on him. Afraid she was too close to his anatomy at the moment _and thank god that suit concealed some things from this angle_. She was afraid, but not of dying or Phineas. And that was just fine.

* * *

Well, this was it. Their parting ways and she'd known it was coming from their first…well, there had been no hellos. Just the two of them thrown together and forced to get along. Not much in the way of making a solid friendship, but it had bloomed something approaching kinship to almost adoration of the big brute. Almost. Her dependency on him stemmed a tendril of fear of being left behind and lost in cold, dark hallways full of slick shadows with teeth. When all she needed was a _bigger_ monster to free her and hold her hand.

"Well…good bye?" Trite words that didn't measure up to anything. She wanted to leave before something welled up in her throat, some strange feeling that felt wooden and splintery and would leave tears. But what words were big enough to convey what she felt?

They'd been silent since she climbed over him out of the pit and up the chain. It had been a slow process. Her arm hadn't cooperated at all and he'd had to actually boost her up a few times with his knees. Even bound he was more useful then she.

When she turned to leave, a large hand wrapped around her sloppily bandaged shoulder and halted her step. Her arm throbbed in the sling as his fingers, so much like a steel claw, could snap the joint but held her in place like her bones were hollow as a bird's. With a questioning look, she turned to look at him over her shoulder but that wasn't good enough. Gently, but unerringly he turned her to face him until she stood face to front and stared at the decorative knot of braided cording she hadn't noticed before on his huge chest. Had he tied that or was it given to him by another of his race? Did he have friends? A lover?

"Wha-" She stopped when he let go and reached for his mask. Her eyes widened and she stiffened in instinctual alarm. _What is he doing?_ He couldn't take that off! That was his mask! That was…it was him! She flung a hand out to pull his hands back down, though it was like pulling a steel building down.

"Please don't!" He growled at her, really _snarled_ enough to make her skin flinch all over like a spooked horse but dammit! This was important. This was an ending they had to get right. Something in her bones said they couldn't part on an bad note when this whole mess had been wrong, so wrong, from the very start. She babbled over him, refusing to look at his face as she held onto his hand and stared at his chest.

"You can't do this. I haven't _earned_ that right. I can't see you as you! That's the one thing you have left I haven't ruined because of him. Please…_stay like this_…" Lee was afraid deep inside her bones, down to the marrow, that he'd override her wants as he often did and rip off the mask. But he surprised her when he merely lowered his arms and gently uncurled her hand from his forearm with nimble, callused fingers.

Softly she murmured, "You always surprise me like that. I can't predict you…but that's the point, isn't it? What good would a hunter be if he is predictable?" She could have done without the condescending pat on the head and the trilling noise that just had to be a laugh. Finally she looked up at him, at the mask that was such a symbol for everything between them, the anonymity of their lives and struggles deep in space from their homes.

One question burned at the back of her mind and had been for some time now. "How are you going to get home?"

Later, before she left the planet for good, she'd learn that alien technology was much more advanced than humankinds and that the rest of his race seemed to be made of bigger assholes than he. Something to reflect on.


	16. Epilogue

_And nobody told you deep within a heart so ravenous_

_That maybe I could spare a beat for (you)_

_-Darren  
_

Epilogue

Modern medicine could take a human being far but not far enough. Science could only hold the reaper at bay before he came to collect his due. And for Lee, he finally made his call.

Thirty years had been kind to her in a way. Time had not taken from her body anymore than the disease had. She still had the same haunted eyes that saw too much in shadows and flinched from growling animals. Instinctual fear would follow her to the grave and beyond if it could.

But kindness etched lines into her skin and into her smile. She loved more than a human that had never withstood terror could. Haskell never forgave her and she never begrudged his hate for her. He'd earned it three fold. The one time they met again, in her late thirties and crumbling under time and pain, she kissed his cheek and gave a sad smile at his disgusted flinch. She was no Ruthie and he was no Wyatt. His eyes never healed and she never took a life saving cure for her penance.

On her death bed, as she liked to call it, she burrowed under a quilt that was her mother's gift so long ago. She didn't have much to do with them; they never understood their stubborn daughter and why she chose death. She didn't understand why she did either. She could live fifty, sixty more years with a cure right there. But the thought of Phineas' hands behind the scenes, twisting life, made her embrace the disease more. He'd taken her life in the end but he wouldn't save it. Even if he was dead, she wouldn't give him that.

Life had been too kind to her after she and _Brun_ had parted ways. She'd lived in anonymity with a simple, clean existence. She never married and tended to think of Wyatt and his gentle hands on quiet nights, curled up alone in her bed. Her one escapade into seeking human comfort led to a startling night of underwhelming passion and a unexpected pregnancy. Her daughter looked too much like her older self, with a kinder, softer face. Her eyes were the startling chocolate of her father's that shaped her name.

_But I already had a Brun in my life…you'll be Brin. I can't say thank you enough for saving my life…_

Brin's father married and moved on with his life. He cared enough to send flowers to Lee and hold her hand when she told him she was dying. When he went back to his lively wife, Lee smiled and embraced the quiet.

When the doctors pronounced that they could do no more, Brin called everyone to see her one last time before ushering them away. Few friends and colleagues, her parents made a house call. Haskell didn't show up but neither had been expecting him to. Lee watched the days go by in her bed, blankets heavy on her wasting away body.

Sleep tugged at her insistently when her daughter didn't shake her awake and curl against her side like the child she wanted to stay as. She was the same age as Lee on that stupid planet that haunted her mother's thoughts and nightmares. Lee wondered if she had looked that young and vulnerable behind those bars…

And then one night, the cool breeze and moonlight streaming in through the window was interrupted by a distorted form that warped the space. Lee's tired face lit up for a moment, waiting for the answering trill that barely carried in the room.

"_Brun_. You found me again." In a way, she supposed, he'd never lost sight of her. Not even in those dark tunnels where hell yawned hungrily for them. He'd never lost his path once.

His cloaking fell away from him like an illusion shattered as he squatted beside her bed, still nearly eye to eye to her as she watched him. Exhaustion was held at bay for just the moment as her eyes memorized his form for the scant time she had. He had changed and the surprise at being able to tell was nearly startling. It was like coming home, seeing him felt safe when it shouldn't have. He was death to most and just happened to be life for her.

He gave her a throaty click as she felt more than heard a scan tickle her body. In one second he knew more about her body then most doctors could. She almost laughed at the grave air he had about him. Solemn fit him like an ill fitted suit.

"Stop that…we knew I was dying. I don't care. It doesn't even hurt." A bald lie. The disease pushed her body to its endurance limit and then some. By now she was so used to the pain that she could paint on a smile for her daughter and lie with the charm of a snake oil salesman.

He flicked her forehead without any real intention. It was more a chiding caress and she wouldn't have expected the gentleness from him. His gentleness was always a surprise.

"You're really upset, aren't you?" Her voice was so soft she often had to strain herself to be heard. But for him she barely moved her mouth and he knew. His hearing was so much better than a humans that she felt the flicker of envy at not having just one ounce of strength. The fleet memory of craving that power of his in the compound stirred within her mind like a sleepy bat taking to fight.

_I want to tell him that I envy him and his life. I crave everything he has, and no fear. Even in the end in that hell hole, he wasn't afraid to die. I never had that, even now I'm so scared of what will happen to me when I close my eyes but too tired to even say…_

Instead she sighed and let her eyelids slide closed, ashamed in some aspects of the tears trickling down her cheeks to wet the pillow cradling her head. Despite her bluster, death was not something she was proud to embrace. She would never see her daughter grow into a lady and marry. Never hold her grandchildren or kiss their chubby cheeks.

_Maybe it was enough to just hold my own daughter…_

"Did you see her? She's like me in every way except she's smarter…" She smiled and imagined _Brun_ growing bored with all of this, looking to the window to leave at any moment to get away from her prattle. "She even laughs like me…you'll hate her."

The hissing of recessed air pulled her out of her thoughts as her eyes slowly opened. The heavy weight on the bed beside her hand was _Brun's _mask. Without looking at him she reached out to touch the hard, curved surface. Cool, textured in the subtlest ways and very heavy. She would liked to have explored the object more but she doubted he had the patience for her to be handling something so personal of his. Death bed or not.

She sat up straighter when she finally looked to his face and now wasn't _that _a shock? Four countless moments she stared…and stared…and couldn't stop staring even when the timid part of her mind yelped that maybe she should look away before she pissed him off. But his face was just so…so…

"You remind me of a spider…" Well, hell, she was dying. What was he really going to do to her? She somehow knew the twitch of his upper mandible was a sign of "you really piss me off sometimes" and had to grin. Even if he was so alien it sent every animal alarm off in her body, she still had to smile. It was still _Brun._

"But you have pretty eyes." Alarmingly human-like eyes, but for the color, and the age held in them. She relaxed against her pillow, watching his eyes for a real focal point away from everything else alien and strange about him.

He spoke to her, for the first time without the mask, the language thick and pierced with unnatural things she couldn't understand and felt more than anything. No telling what he was saying to her but she was glad he at least tried like she did. The language barrier was annoying but here and now, with life waning inside, it didn't matter. Let them speak to one another through the night of things they couldn't understand but could feel.

Near dawn, Lee could no longer stay awake even if she tried to hard. The muted footsteps of her daughter on the floor outside the room roused _Brun_ from his contemplative study. He slipped from the bed, cloaked and hidden as Brin stepped into the room. Mother and daughter's movements were nearly the same. The younger woman's were soft and easy with youth and vitality. Innocence.

A invisible something brushed through Brin's hair as she turned from the open window to her mother. The woman's hand lay open with a small charm held in her lax fingers; carved bone into a strange shape that held no meaning for the younger woman. But it seemed to hold everything to her mother. The smile on the soft face was one she hadn't seen in so very long, unburdened by memories or pain.

Puzzled at the strange night, Brin tucked her mother in and pulled up a chair beside her bed to watch her mother sleep. For once, she didn't have to shake her awake from nightmares. This blessing lasted for a few nights more until the dear lady couldn't draw another breath.


	17. Odds N Ends

**Author's Note: I can't believe I'm officially done with this beast of a novel. And to think it all started with a tiny day dream and Evanescence CD. XD This last bit is just the odds and ends that didn't get to make it in the story. And expect some one shots in the future to wrap up random odds and ends.**

**I rewrote the ending chapter **_**five times **_**before I got it right in my head. It's weird when you get it right. It just clicks like a puzzle piece. **

**The first ending was vague and strange. Brun would make it off the planet with his clan, Lee and Haskell would be stuck on the planet. Eventually she and Haskell would cling to each other, stuck with one another and have a child. Weird unrequited love and Brun visiting back. Yeah, didn't make too much sense and I flung it aside. **

**Ending two was going to be geared up toward a sequel. Wyatt would be alive, Phineas would escape with him on a ship and Lee and Brun would pursue in revenge. But sequels are daunting in that they have to equal and surpass their former. I didn't see that happening. So nope!**

**Third was rocks fall and everyone dies. Blah. Too emo.**

**Fourth was a big fight scene where Hiss, Phineas, and our two heroes get in a fight. Impractical and hard to plan out. Too many big players. **

**Fifth was this: **

**She finds the ship**

**Hallquist is inside and shoots her**

**She falls out of the ship, gasping for breath and owing**

**Brun saves her**

**Hiss attacks**

**Hallquist uses Lee as a human shield as the two monsters fight, shoots brun in the arm**

**Brun and hiss fall off the platform**

**Hallquist drags lee to the ship, intent on just taking her with him and Haskell. **

**Last ditch effort, she shoves his ass off the platform**

**Too hard to make sense of that!**

**And finally I got it right, I hope.**

**Questions time: What happened to Hiss?**

He's alive, believe it or not. I may write some stuff with him in the future. I rather like the bastard.

**What about the locket that Amelia gave to Lee?**

She gave it to Amelia's daughter. That's a story for another time.

**Does Brin know about her mother's adventures?**

When she finds her diary under her mattress she will. Again, another story for another time.

**Will Brin ever meet **_**Brun**_**?**

Do we wish that on her? XD Maybe.

**What did **_**Brun **_**feel about Lee?**

Hard to say. He is a creature of few words, even for his kind.

**Why didn't I write any of this story from Brun's POV?**

The story was never his. He was just a pivotal role. This is strictly a human's story. Which is why we never got an ounce from him. That and I have a hard time deciding where to stand on Predator lore. It's hard to decide what is canon and what isn't.

**Scraps never used in the story for the emo is strong: **

Sorrow is a catalyst that compels movement and only movement for Lee. The cooling blood of a once-friend was tacky and thick on her arms and lap. The clothing stuck to her body and made her a biohazard beacon to every monster around with a taste for the coppery spill. The enzymes would crust to brown and flake off long after the body was forgotten in the computer room.

Lee's steps were quiet as she strode for the hangar, the gun dangling from loose fingers. A trickle of crimson, her own blood, spilled from new wounds inflicted on the old by her strange nemesis. She felt the creature following her along with the rest of his kin and shuddered, the hairs standing straight up on her neck and down her arms. Every corner was a ambush waiting to happen that never…did.

She made it to the hangar unharmed and was unsurprised at the carnage in the vast cavern. Soldiers were dead, very dead (no dying here) and _Brun_ was missing. Civilians, once doctors and proud students, lay crumpled like used tools. Their own filth and death over powered her own dirty presence as she crept through the room. Bile rose in her throat; hot and stinging. She didn't have a direct plan. Just one foot in front of the other and not go back. Never go back.

_How is it, I knew my paths would lead to him? Always to him._ In front of her, before his grand ship was the good doctor. He seemed so small, standing alone and untouched. His dress coat was pristine and he wasn't hurried. In fact, he watched her with a human attachment she could never return.

"Leah…"

"Lee. My name is _Lee_." Her voice was a near snarl, low and rough from crying. "For once in your miserable life you _will acknowledge my given name." _

The pity in his eyes was what made her arm twitch and the pistol was raised to point at him. Her hand didn't even shake and she wondered when she'd given over herself to such ugliness that she could consider a man's death, by her own hands, a great thing. And through it all, her mind had cataloged the room and placed the bits together like a puzzle.

_Brun_ had lain waste to the armed guards and anything that stood in his way. At the same time, the aliens had spawned up from wherever and attacked. Their twitching forms were barely seen, but Lee could smell them and their caustic blood glowing, eating holes in the corners. She'd missed a blood bath while she'd held onto Amelia's body and christened herself in the woman's blood.

So, how did the good doctor survive? When everyone seemed dead, here he was. Untouched and untarnished. Her finger tightened on the trigger at the thought. No matter what filth was laid before him, he came out so clean and nice. Where as she was covered in ruin.

"Do you want a cure, Lee?" The way he grated her name was hideous and mocking. For once the cool, cultured shell cracked and she got a taste of what Phineas could be. Just another human with a temper and a cruel streak. And always for her.

"…you gave me what my mother has, didn't you?"

"You are a waste, my dear. Possessing some level of intelligence and yet, you couldn't just let yourself grow and utilize that full potential." He grew more impassioned and gestured with his arms, like a Politian making promises and grandiose schemes. _It's alright, _his body said. _Let me care for you._

It was always a lie. This, she knew. "I would rather die than let you heal me. You killed my friends…you mutilated countless others. For that, you should be locked away. For every life you saved, you threw away countless others."

She wasn't ashamed when the tears started to roll down her cheeks again. After this, she might never stop crying until her eyes bled. With every word, she stepped closer to him and he closer to her like two magnets moving across a board.

"Let me heal you, Lee. Let me fix you and you can return to your mother. I'm sure she misses you so very much."

His words cut her, like they always had and she was transfixed by that maddening voice of his. Madness was infectious and Lee was prime for it. All that she had been through led her here to this idiotic standoff when they were surrounded by death. And she couldn't act. Couldn't move against him just yet.

"I miss my mother so much…and I'm not even sure I can look at her the same after what you have done to me. Not that you care," she bitterly added. "You wanted to punish me and you have, Phineas. You have destroyed everything that I have ever been."

"Oh, you stupid chit!" She startled back from his explosive temper, something she hadn't seen before. Rage transformed his face into a mask she wasn't familiar with at all. "I gave you time and again to join me because _you_ were obsessed with _me_! But you spurned me! You hounded me across the stars and when I tried to let you free, you refused that gift! You are _nothing_ to me. And yet I am_ everything _to you!"

It was then, with the resounding ring of his words echoing off the hangar, that realization bloomed like a putrid flower in her breast and Lee staggered, physically ill, at the revelation. It wasn't Phineas who had hungered for her. _She_ was the one who had carried the sick obsession, the need to shadow him and ruin him. She was the one who had carried on this illness to him. For so long she'd held onto the grudge with him like a it was her very own strand of fate that just wouldn't be severed. And he was ever fleeing from her…He was right and that moment of understanding took everything from her, leaving her to drop the gun from slack fingers.

"Do you understand now, my dear? Do you see how sick you are?" His words were kindly and concerned. She was appalled at herself for ever mistaking that for love for herself. What had she been thinking? Why had she thought the world evolved around her and her alone? What hubris…

"You so willingly gave your friends to me. Had I not let them go countless times before? As a right, did I not have the freedom to defend myself against your terrorism? You would have killed everyone here given the chance…and a chance you have taken again." He looked around the room, distaste and defeat making his face sag and show his age.

In the distance she heard _Brun_ shrill and some hope bloomed in her chest, fighting that sickly feeling but not overpowering it. She hoped he lived to see her one last time. The noise almost muted the sound of the shot that slammed her back a few steps and onto her rump. Before her, Phineas calmly leveled his pistol to her forehead, a red lazar site leading the way.

Swallowing convulsively, body twitching from the shot as a red dot grew and expanded on her shoulder, she stared at the wound in shock. _I can't feel my arm…he shot me… _The pain she expected didn't come as she continued to bleed freely and all she could think of was that of all the harmful things she'd done before this moment, this was the least of what should happen to her. 

(she realizes that the BOTH of them are monsters. Not she alone. Phineas may be right about her, but he's still a hateful tyrant)

"I am sorry, my dear. But I simply can not indulge in your fantasy anymore. You have leveled this compound and countless years of research are gone because of you. I wanted to help you, I thought perhaps it was the work you were interested in but no…" At his words she bowed her head, shame pulling on her like the strongest gravity field. "Everything here is broken and I'll have to start all anew again."

_Everything is broken…everything…every…thing…_ As easily as the shame sapped her will, anger and realization flooded her body with a new reserve and she lunged forward tackling his legs. The moment of surprise was hers and the good doctor lost his balance and stumbled back, her ferocity (more than her weight) bringing him down onto his back. A startled shot from the gun and his twitching hand scarred the ceiling above them.

"Things, Phineas! Things! I may be a sick person, but you are worse! _Far worse_! They're still objects to you! Me, the doctors, the victims! We're all just steps or expendable tools and you know it. You never cared!" Lee may have been self-absorbed and confused, but she knew within her very heart what kind of man Hallquist was. That had never changed. He was still a man willing to sacrifice as many as needed for the greater good. A man who could step on the lowest along his way without batting an eye over the damage.

They grappled at each other, rolling across the floor and even when Phineas gained the upper hand by pinning her injured shoulder down to the floor, she hissed out, "You are as sick as I am."

**The ending that didn't happen: **

The force of the push sent both of the humans off the platform and flying out into the great space under the ship's hull. Phineas screeched the entire way down, while Lee gasped once, and flung out an arm in a useless gesture to save herself. Her reflection on the bottom of the ship mocked her as she fell, one grasping hand held out for sanctuary…

…and there was _Brun. _

His hand caught her hand in a bruising grip, hard enough to snap a small bone inside with a muted crack. But the sickening fall was halted and the relief so sweet, Lee didn't _care_ if her hand was hurt or the sudden jarring stop made her injured shoulder flare into a new life of agony. She wasn't going to die! _Brun_ was alive! Her tear stained face, pulled in a grimace of pain and fear, tentatively gave a smile as she looked up at her friend. He clung to the side of the shaft like a grotesque spider, claws dug into the thin metal and wrist blade buried in a deep furrow where he'd halted his own fall.

She dangled from his hand, warm and callused (something she hadn't paid attention to before), and tried not to look down over her toes to the empty black that swallowed the light. Somewhere down there was Phineas and _Hiss_. A fitting pit for two monsters.

A trickle of warmth made her look up at their hands and note the spill of his strange blood, making a river down his arm to hers. It had a strange quality to it that she didn't like at all and made their grip slippery. Plus, his shoulder was macerated by the Xeno and she found it a marvel he was even holding onto her for so long.

**Music List: **

Theme song: Heavy - Collective Soul

General in between chapters: Early Evanescence songs. Unforgiven II by Metallica

Ending chapters: Stone In My Hand - Everlast

Last Chapter: Who Would Have Thought - Darreny Hayes & Heartbeat - Nigera Nneka


	18. Previews for Rest Stop and All Movement

**AN: So, I thought I was finished with Only Movement and the characters therein. But in the middle of working on other pieces (that are taking forever because I write super slow) I found that I wasn't quite done with that universe and the characters. I left a lot of unanswered questions and Lee kept popping up to say more about her life. I'll admit that I do enjoy writing Lee and Brun entirely too much. I will also admit this is sheer self service in writing these two pieces. I wanted to continue the story and so I have. **

**That being said, here are preview for two upcoming stories that tie in very heavily to Only Movement. Rest Stop is set directly after Only Movement's end and goes into detail how Lee gets off the planet. All Movement follows the path of her daughter and Lee's journal.**

Rest Stop

Lee stared at the shuttle. The doc had said it was in working condition. So why wasn't it actually_ working_? The damn thing lay there like a bloated beetle with stubby legs and a frowning face for a hull. Everything was coated in a fine layer of dust that felt more like powder than the fine sand covering the planet. _Oh _and the_ planet…_

She wanted off more than a day ago. It was suddenly extremely crowded with the arrival of Brun's…whatever those were. She wouldn't stretch it to say family. More like a clan? Maybe? Whoever they were, she didn't much like them and they had less use for her. Their arrival had been an odd heralding of doom. Like she was watching her time run out like this fine sand through an hour glass only Brun kept flipping it back over before the last grains fell.

She kept away from them as much as she could without actually leaving the damned compound. There was nothing on the tiny planet that she knew of, besides Hallquist's little hell. What lay beyond the bay doors was kilometers of sand and dunes that rose and flowed over the horizon like a twisting, lazy snake. Still, a dry death out there was nearly preferable to his kind. They were just so…

But the shuttle, for whatever reason that all the deities up there wanted to punish her for, wouldn't start. Wouldn't even so much as give a routine maintenance log for her when she plugged it into the system to try and access the central computer. She'd managed to pull it out into the constant sunlight with a squat towing machine that complained with belches of black smoke at the load it was burdened with.

So she was stuck, trying to figure out how to fix a ship she had no inkling of how to fix. And crawling to the underside didn't help though, supposedly, this was the hatch to get to the engine housing. But this was a shuttle. She barely knew how to fly it much less how the engine worked. Her father had taught her the basics of flying. _Basics._ As in: push this button to start, this to guide, and set up the guidance system for the auto pilot function to do all the work.

Her father had never been the type of man to get grease under his nails so he'd never delved into the fine depths of his own ship and taught her how to be a grease monkey. She had taken an inkling to wander below into the bowels of the ship to hang out with the engineers and mechanics when her parents weren't wary of where and whom she was speaking to. They'd taught her a few things but this stupid shuttle…this eluded her.

The communications station was temptingly parked with the controls in the cabin of the ship. She'd snatched up the nearest frequency once the ship decided to remain ground bound and useless. But after a few moments, she'd backed away from the machine like it had tried to bite her. Only the bulletin had been far more full of teeth.

There was a military order out for her ragtag group of protesters. A life living and sharing a luxury ship with decorated veterans taught her some ins and outs of the lingo they used. What she heard wasn't good. Her knees hit the back of the pilot's chair and she sat with a muffled _thump_. Collect and dispose of.

_Why would they want to get rid of us? We weren't all that dangerous…sure we sabotaged some buildings but the worst we ever did was picket outside a few offices! _Before this planet, Lee and Wyatt hadn't considered anything more radical. No, that had been her idea to storm Phineas front gates and shut the place down; bedamned waiting on help to arrive.

_They must have been funding his whole system. Explains the fancy machinery… Except this ship, _she sourly reminded herself. _They don't know he's dead and if they find out I had anything to do with it…_

Oh and this time she did have something to do with _it._ The bitter, bile tang of his blood still lingered in her mind no matter how much she had thrown up afterward. Another convulsive round of gagging had followed when she'd found a bit of Phineas' skin between her teeth.

Even thinking about it now, days later, her empty stomach lurched at the thought and she reflexively smiled like a lunatic to control the spasms. Her hands smoothed over her stomach as she hugged herself and thought about her options. She couldn't stay on the planet for too long. Haskell needed a medic and she, ignoring the fact that she too needed all the medical help in the galaxy, was now on the run from the very military force her father worked with.

All Movement

Time had a funny way of shaking emotions out of Brin like a hand full of dice. She watched them fall from her, no matter how tightly she kept her fists, and frowned at their landing. Always coming up snake eyes and getting that _look_ from her advisors and therapist. Pity slipped into her bloodstream like a sliver of ice and made her clasp the emotions tighter only to watch them slip free on their own.

She stared resolutely at the journal clenched in her hand under the data tablet that held her homework and schedule for the rest of the month. Look at that, already booked past the month's end; her life laid out so neatly for her by her peers. She didn't see one mention of her mother in the neat grid structure of her hours.

Underneath the modern, sleek computer the journal peeked out almost like a shy taboo. Plant matter hadn't been used in centuries since the source was scarce and extinct in some areas. The neat scrawl between the covers was all she had left of her mother. Written words in a red ink in a sometimes erratic and illegible scratch like Lee's hands shook while grasping the pen.

"Brin, why won't you look at me?" The therapist's voice always reminded Brin of syrup; thick, and goopy with exotic flavor. She tried to remember the last time she had had actually real (not synthesized) syrup or molasses. When she was a child, maybe?

She glanced up at the woman and shook her head. Why couldn't she ever look Mala in the face? Something about her knowing gaze bothered her. She was not that much older than Brin. Twenty years at the most but she had a look that made her seem a hundred years older and so…stern. She was in her early forties, not even halfway through her life, and she looked so dated and bored with the universe. Brin couldn't remember liking the woman too terribly much. Her mother had known her since before Brin was born and had struck up some…form of friendship with her. Her mother could never look the woman in the eyes either for her own reasons.

"I don't think we need these sessions anymore. I'm much better now." Brin kept her features schooled and didn't clutch at the lapful of books and datapads. All desperation was pushed under the surface, like sinking a treasure chest in a deep pool of water. Wasn't that what her mother had taught her when she was smaller?

She could still hear her mother's voice, just a bit hoarse from coughing, whispering in her ear. When her mother had been diagnosed she hadn't handled the news well. Brin had been prone to nervous attacks since birth and had trouble just grasping every day tasks. Being told your mother was going to be leaving you before you were even a legal adult were too much for her fragile mind to grasp. She'd done everything from begging her mother to cursing her for daring to get sick. There had to be a cure out there, right? But when she'd brought up the idea to Lee, Brin had been forcefully shut down. Her mother had never been so vehement in her life.

"You think you are healed." A dark eyebrow arched over a lovely shadowed eye. Another thing Brin found offputting about Mala was her flawless features. She was beautiful as a doll which only added to the cold, fake feel of her. She could always pose questions as statements and that infuriated rather than helped.

"I don't think anything. I know what I feel. I'm better now and I don't need you." Internally Brin cringed at the harsh tone that had crept into her voice. It was true she didn't need her mother's therapist and had been irritated her grandparents had walked back into her life long enough to insist she "get help" before the hysteria spread from her mother to her. There was no hysteria. Not that Brin had seen. She was allowed to grieve her mother's loss wasn't she?

"Your mother left a large space in your life. Everyone is concerned with how you are going to fill it. There was some…trouble you found yourself in last week." The question was meant to be delicate but felt probing and invasive. Like she was trying to chisel the answer out with an icepick.

"My mother's ashes were mine by rights."

"Is that what you think?"

"She is my mother!" Now Brin did lose her cool and slammed a fist down on Mala's desk with a dull thud. The room muffled the sounds too much to make a satisfying din. Not enough to contain her anger. The hospital had tried to keep the body and her grandparents had fought her for the ashes. They had no right!

"You broke into a public facility and stole your mother's ashes. Do you believe that a sane course of action?" Again Mala's face showed no emotion and Brin tightened the hold on her book. Nothing about her mother's death had been sane and Brin was just the slightest incensed that she wasn't allowed her own bit of insanity to cope with the events.

"My grandparents didn't even know my mother all that well." A solid lump always vied for room in her throat with the words and ground sharp against the tissue.

"There were no directions in the will stating who would get the remains. You don't think your mother's parents deserve some say in this matter?" Under the smooth plastic desk, Mala crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. Her fingers were painted a dark red that matched her lips and the dusky complexion.

"They can certainly do whatever they want, if they can find the ashes," which she had hidden in her apartment. Brin had no intention of letting them get their hands on her mother's remains. Lee had had no fond memories of her mother and father and Brin didn't remember seeing them too often when she was a girl. She saw them as much as she saw her father and that was maybe once in a few years with an awkward dinner.

Brin's body tightened from head to toe, the muscles sliding tightly under her skin, as Mala slid the chair back and rose to her feet. She walked around the desk and settled on the edge of it right in front of Brin, who could only stare at the charcoal of her pressed pants and not look into that face that was so cutting her motives apart.

"Brin, I will ask you one thing and then our session will be over. But I need you to look at me for that to happen." She didn't reach forward to lift Brin's chin or try to get her attention in any way whatsoever but Brin felt the compelling command to lift her gaze to the woman's face and she internally quelled at the blank look. This woman was always so slate faced.

"What do you plan to do with Lee's ashes?"


End file.
